Beyond the Veil
by Knightdale
Summary: "The prophecies spoke of a savior, one who would bring order to Chaos, only to release Chaos on the innocent. One who would restore the Balance, only to finally break it."
1. Tale 1 - Prologue

_**Tale 1 - The Breach**_

 **PROLOGUE**

Many years were to pass until the inevitable catastrophe. Generations of men would rise and fall before the first signs of the coming storm. In that sliver of time the world was calm and the mankind worked its way towards a great future at full speed, sooner or later they would be holding the strength drawn from the unshakable laws of logic of their world grasped in one hand, the chaotic power harnessed from its shadowy part in the other. Fearless, tireless, witless. But what they couldn't see was seen by different eyes. By those who lay hidden, observing, studying, planning, waiting for the time they ought to present themselves to these mortals and guide them in their hour of need – the hour they knew would come.

On that day, however, their concern was not the doomed future of humans. They gathered – in their own unique fashion – to discuss one of their own. All four of the Draic Kin had bent their minds to look into the plane of the reality that could not be accessed by anyone else in this world, at least not by choice. The layer of the Dreaming which was less tightly bound with the material world in which they now resided was, like many times before, their courier, bringing their thoughts and emotions to one another. They would all appear to each other, as whispers in the wind, ghostly shimmers seen from the corner of an eye – each one of them – though more real and substantial to one another than any flash and blood mortal being.

But they would not settle for a simple message or two this time. When the eldest one called for them, they each drew as much of themselves into the Dreaming as was possible without completely detaching themselves from their temporary home world.

And so they appeared one by one. First the Red one - curiosity and wonder of a newborn, and wit and mischief worthy of the oldest malignant minds – slowly bloomed into existence. Soon the Green of the Kin joined in – immense passion and dedication, hidden beneath cold, uncaring arrogance – his was the most measured pace. The White was the last one – generosity and gentleness, with mercilessness and fiery fierceness to match – her light grew slowly, drawing certain amount of attention from the first two. The three regarded the one who had summoned them, the Blue of the Draic Kin, the eldest sibling – The deepest, ancient, all consuming mind, yet uninterested, distracted, sleepy.

Now that they were all present, The Blue turned to the White and the other two gladly followed the suite.

"I am relieved to know you are not harmed… and you're back with us… Finally!..", his voice echoed in their minds like a low rumble of distant thunder.

"I'm glad to be reunited with you all!" She answered, he felt the warmth of her smile and sincerity of her words.

"Why did you shroud yourself, hiding in mists and darkness... thief like?" The Red one asked with no small amount of surprise. The eldest Kin observed her covertly from beneath the sleepiness he had spread over himself to cover his own consciousness, dull the sharpness of it, at least for others' perception. She didn't reply right away, but her presence radiated something new – for a moment she was hesitant, measuring words and he felt a sizable amount of protectiveness. The Blue of the Kin knew, of course, what she was protecting, although he wasn't sure why and what from, and the subtle changes she had gone through piqued his interest like little else could. He would discuss these things with her later, when others had satisfied their own curiosity, or rather, given up trying.

"Why haven't we been joined by your Dream lately? We got worried." The green one inquired, more stern than the others. They obviously suspected her of keeping secrets from them and rightfully so. Even if they didn't have the sight and hearing of the Blue one, they were bound to feel something.

"I donned a human body and walked among them for several moons as humans measure time", she offered. They fell silent, expectant, but she said no more.

"What for?" The Green one asked, scornful and arrogant.

"I observed, and experienced, and learned." was the simple answer.

Their disbelief was palpable. The Red and the Green ones were quiet, the pause stretched on. One waited, the other searched for a different, more thorough answer, the sort they could easily accept, or at least comprehend. None came. She was as calm and serene as ever. _In fact,_ he noted to himself, as confident in the secrecy of his thoughts as he alone could be, _she's a little more serene than she usually is._

"What could you possibly have needed to learn from them?" The Green one asked, indignant as always when it came to the matters that concerned humans.

"Not from them, brother," she corrected him, seeming almost uncharacteristically condescending (he felt the Green one bristle encountering such attitude towards himself) "about them."

"We have been studying them since before they knew the meaning of studying," The Red one interjected, his pride smaller than his puzzlement, "Why was such a thing necessary?"

"And why not tell us?" The Green Kin continued, unwilling to let his suspicions drop.

"I _have_ told you," She retorted, "Just now." They were stunned. Now she was filled with what was unmistakably mischievous playfulness expected of a human child, but certainly unfitting for a Draic Kin. Even the Blue of the Kin, who had been prepared for certain oddities - better informed as he was - was somewhat perplexed to witness her behave this way.

"Besides," she continued in a more serious tone "it may not have been necessary, but that doesn't mean it was not advisable. I found the experience invaluable, considering the fact that we are almost certainly going to be their guides in times yet to come."

"So?" The Green demanded, more stubborn still. "I don't see why you couldn't have told us what you were planning."

"Now how is this fair, brother?" She asked, unperturbed, "We all lay in silence and isolation for years and years."

"That's not what you did!", The Green Draic kin objected and finally the Blue felt him give way to anger, the Red one alarmed, the White stronger in her defiance. He let out a low growl vibrating through their senses to remind them all that they must behave, not let petty annoyance get the best out of them.

"We could feel your existence", the Red one started carefully, "but it was hard to even be sure it was you. A lot of the times I... We... lost confidence in our recognition." A small pause, "You were shrouded." He repeated, his insatiable curiosity more and more prominent.

"I am sorry to have disturbed you in such a way," she answered, calm and gentle once again, "but I've done what I've done and I see no harm in it."

It didn't get much different from there on. Every question, every demand to explain herself was treated by her as though a joke. She pretended (surely) as if she gave no importance to their concerns and that they were, in fact, out of proportion and unnecessary. Different emotions rose from the other two as well. The Green grew colder as it had been expected, while the Red one became something of a mystery - there was a hint of excitement in his presence now and, surprisingly enough, he seemed somewhat amused.

After a while, as he was the eldest, the Blue Dragon urged them to finish what in his opinion was a useless conflict of minds, and granted The White of the Kin her right to do with her time as she pleased, as long as she did not break the laws that bound each one of them. He also expressed his belief that she would take their concerns into account in the future. Reluctantly the two brothers ceased what had become an interrogation of sorts, the gathering had ended.

He lay there and waited for the whispers to die down. His siblings withdrew their presence slowly, gradually, in the same sequence they'd come. When the White of the Draic Kin prepared to leave, however, he latched unto her mind and wordlessly, without any explanation started his descent into the bottommost parts of the Dreaming, turning inwards and dragging her down with him. Not all had been said, but what he had to say he would say to her only. An invitation would've been accepted, he believed, but he would not voice a thought anymore, not until they were out of reach, away from the other two's hearing range. The white seemed to have understood, as she simply followed him down into the depths of the endless tunnel, on and on until they entered that layer which not one of them was fit to enter, but he - the first herald of the Great Dream, the ancient Dragon could. So he guided her there - safe from the others' inquisitive minds and piqued ears. She took it in, the feel of it, the dream so ancient she felt like a newborn, humbled in face of the great age that lay there, dormant yet watchful.

The Blue of the Draic Kin took in her mood. Good, she didn't stir trouble, perhaps she realized that The Talk would happen one way or another, and she was glad to have been offered a chance at a private conversation rather than have her secrets discussed with the others.

"I know what you've done." He told her, calm and decisive. "A spark rose off the flame… I felt it… I heard it. I know what you've brought… into existence." She didn't argue, instead her inner smile flowered in his mind, sweet and warm. "Yes, she said. I expected you would." her excitement grew tenfolds now that she allowed it to, "What do you think?"

"It's strange… and weak," he said slowly, "and hard to place… "

"She's wonderful." She answered simply. "With time she will be much stronger."

"Your thoughts and feelings towards this being… are shaped like those of mortals." Not quite like mortals, of course, for that was virtually impossible, yet alarmingly similar.

"Yes," she agreed, "and so it should be."

"I fail to see..." he remarked thoughtfully, "why you've hidden this... from us."

"I knew I could never hide her from _you_ ," The White answered and became more concerned and guarded, "but I will beg you not to reveal my secret to the others."

The urgency of this request confused him, he studied her for a while before finally deciding to ask, "Do you... distrust our siblings?" The question was almost an accusation, and she might have felt so, but her will was unyielding.

"This one thing alone is too precious for me to rely on trust."

This too he met with studious silence, "It won't be a secret for long... you ought to know... that. Fire can't be hidden... in a haystack." He answered reasonably.

"And yet I'd prefer to keep her secret for as long as possible." and before The Blue of the Draic Kin could wonder at it, or enquire any further, she added, almost pleadingly, "please!"

He felt her despair, but couldn't understand it. Though perhaps he ought to have, since he alone had had the reason to call anyone or anything his child. But the nature of this relationship seemed different to the core and he could not grasp it. For some time he was deep in thought. He regarded his sister, perceiving all that she was, the youngest and brightest to stand facing the oldest and darkest, and now she had tied herself to this world the way none of them had, to counter his own detachment. He had brought so many into this world yet spared them so little thought. She had brought just one and it had become the single most important thing. He saw how they stood on two ends of a single thread, not clashing against each other, but in perfect equilibrium. And wasn't it so fitting? Had she been guided, after all, by that impeccable Balance, the Balance of All? _Perhaps… it should be like this…_ his thought echoed in both their minds and she gave him that warm smile again. He could see no fault in her actions or decisions, only peculiarity. _Oh well_ , he decided, _I have no doubt in her intentions… I'll let her decide how this… strange business continues._

When the White left his abode - slowly rising up layer by layer, diverting her attention this way and that, awed - he remained there, gazing at her light gradually becoming smaller and flickering out of existence in his personal reality.

 _She has changed_ , he thought dreamily. It was astonishing, how much this most basic of mortals' experience could influence their kind. Perhaps it should have been alarming too, but there were other things that distracted him from such an emotion - curiosity, a bit of reluctant fascination, and, of course, sleep... There was always the sleep. He pulled it over himself, like a blanket, knitted with the finest yarn made of time and space, adorned with countless galaxies. He could hear the distant sound of the lullaby, still echoing from the far away cradle he had left such a long time ago, carried over unceasingly for those who could and wished to listen. He had to sleep, it was important to sleep.

He was far from the only one yearning to do so at that moment - somewhere on the intricate tapestry of The All he could still distinguish it, the solitary spark, a new life among countless others, but unique, undefined, bound to him and his kind with the thinnest yet firmest of threads. Barely noticeable, but unbreakable. _Why not?_ He turned his attention to it, _just this once_ , careful not to disturb, and gently guided it into its own dream, wondrous and soothing for the tiny being who was just starting its very long journey.


	2. Tale 1 - Chapter 01

_**Tale One - The Breach**_

 **CHAPTER 01**

Walls shook and the last remaining bits of glass exploded into the hall, their tinkling echoing through rows of broken chairs. A huge chandelier had come crashing down a few days earlier, the impact was deafening like thunder, leaving a permanent mark on once beautiful marble floor, almost crushing the unexpected visitor that had fallen back with a shriek just in time. It had been dragged away and now lay resting against a wall, surrounded by remnants of a shattered Christ.

The mess wouldn't be cleared away for quite some time. The only dwellers of the temple had spent the last few days mostly locked up in the basement, save for occasional bathroom breaks and one quick, frightening yet necessary trip to the other side when they had run out of food and water was no longer supplied. The resulting meal was simple and the air was tense at the table (two wooden boards set on top of two dusty old chairs). They sat on either side of it on the floor and filled their hungry stomachs. The priest had prayed earnestly before touching his food, but April had simply stayed quiet, waiting for him to finish before starting to eat herself. He'd made no comment on that, of course. They ate silently, more concentrated on random sounds of explosion, or angry shouts coming from outside.

They had agreed that the next destination point for both of them would be the headquarter of the Sentinels – the only people they knew that could help them shed some light over the mysterious (and terrifying) events that took place in the city and who knew where else. They had planned to get out that day, after things stabilized a little bit. _Not with the police ready to blast anything that moves in a radius of twenty meters_ , April thought gloomily, staring at the black wooden door that led into the corridor. She was almost sorry for coming back, but she knew she'd have felt the same way if she hadn't. The only thing left was to hope that when they were finally on their way, when things started moving at last, she'd feel better about herself. Until then, whatever forces governed the known universes, seemed hell-bent on making her crawl into a tiny hole and focus on her conflicted state of mind. She wasn't sure how much longer she could stand it before she ran outside and got shot or blown up, even though it was only the third day she'd been stuck here.

By that morning she had somehow fallen asleep to the sound of gunfire, as well as other strange sounds she couldn't quite identify. Her dreams had been far from pleasant. The same sight she'd had seen right after emerging from the Guardian's Realm into Stark had being looming in front of her – countless tendrils of thick dark smoke infused with magical energy stretched across the sky, glowing a poisonous green, making her hair stand on end, finally joining and rising in an enormous vortex up above the clouds, numerous Hovercrafts falling from the sky like meteors, and the dark part of herself – the malicious bitch with her face shown to her by Bak Baar only a week before – dancing around the hazardous place, mocking her in a sing-song voice: "All of this is your fault!" She had been trying to get the nightmare out of her head, but in vain. It kept coming back and flashing before her eyes every time she thought she had succeeded.

She was startled out of her miserable thoughts by her companion's voice, "Perhaps it's not such a good idea for you to sit here and wait with me. I realize that I'm only holding you back, you could have been at the headquarters by now." As if she didn't know that, but that was just another thought she was trying to stuff back into a darker corner of her mind.

"We'll go together." She responded simply and firmly. They'd talked hours and hours the days prior to this, both their heads buzzing with questions about the state of the world outside, trying to find answers as to what had happened. They were mostly clueless, and those few guesses they had managed to come up with were truly disturbing. "For one," She continued matter-of-factly "I don't even know that neighborhood properly, If I tried to Shift I could accidentally end up in a completely different place." Father Raul turned back to his food without further arguments. This was only a second time he had suggested that she should head out by herself, but he wasn't one to force decisions on others. "And wandering alone out there is too dangerous anyway", she continued, to fill the pressing silence, "we'll have more chances of not getting killed or dismembered on our way if we go together."

"I'm humbled by you putting so much faith in me", he flashed a weary smile, "I'll try to be an effective meat shield at least." The joke caught her by surprise and she chuckled in spite of herself. That was a first in days. She opened her mouth to respond with a humorous remark of her own, but unexpectedly, they were almost thrown off their seats as a horrible sound like a lightning strike came from outside, and then another, and one more. Terrified, desperate screams and shouts of warning could now be heard more clearly than before. The ground shook, walls trembled, and to her horror the wall opposite her cracked from the floor all the way up to the ceiling. The priest shuffled hurriedly to her side as dust spilled onto his head from above. They both stared at the jagged black line wide eyed, expecting the ceiling to crumble down any second.

Just as suddenly as it started, it stopped and everything fell silent. For a few moments they didn't dare to move, or speak, or even breath too loudly. Perhaps people outside, whoever they were – police, special forces, gangs, peaceful citizens – had been just as terrified to break this peaceful spell, or perhaps they'd fled to safety, or… She tried to push the images of bits and pieces of dead bodies scattered in the street away from the forefront of her imagination. While they waited in vain for the commotion to start all over again, a familiar sense of unease crept inside her, the discomfort she hadn't felt so strongly for quite some time, if ever, even in the Landwalker's Bubble. She'd thought she'd gotten over it, but now her Claustrophobia was spreading like infection through her consciousness, and she found herself glancing longingly towards the door that led out of this confined space. She had to get out of there.

A minute passed in silence, until they slowly got to their feet. She was secretly pleased to see that the priest was also looking tentatively at the door. He too, it seemed, yearned to get outside now that the danger of being buried alive in rubble had become so real.

"We should just go," she dared, "I don't think we're guaranteed any more safety here than outside now, and we don't know what's gonna happen if we wait longer. Everything might get even crazier than it already is!"

"I quite agree." The priest answered briskly. And without any further discussion they grabbed their things – which wasn't much, just a small leather satchel April had found a day ago in the Inn. She had put the few items she'd preserved her whole journey, a small knife she'd found in the Inn and some dry bread and a bottle of water in it. Father Raul took the messenger bag he had prepared for this trip, and they hurried to the door.

The seconds it took to open the locked door felt like hours, April forced herself to swallow the impulse to bolt outside the moment he pulled the handle down. Both of them stepped out carefully, craning their necks to see the damage that had been done to the rest of the building. The corridor they took was quite dark, they could only register severe damage - such as chunks of block fallen onto the floor in two places that Father Raul fell over, miraculously avoiding breaking his nose - and April thanked the heavens for the blessed darkness that concealed the signs of danger and uncomfortably close walls. After several minutes they emerged into the hall.

Predictably, it looked much worse than before - The great mandala of stained glass that used to be the jewel of the cathedral's beauty was gone completely, leaving a huge hole in front. Sunlight was pouring from it, revealing the mess. The two of them shuffled through the long benches. Some explosions must've happened quite near, April observed, seeing how some of the windows on the right didn't just lack glass and frames, but the now empty stone openings had jagged outlines. _If I'd seen this in a movie or something,_ April thought, passing the confessionals, _I would've loved the mood of the setting, with the lighting and the smoke..._ Indeed, the pale smoke that entered from the gapes had given the area quite an effect, gathered fog like along the old mural with a fleeing baby cherub. Reflected light was falling on the cherub's long red shroud, slightly shimmering and making it look as if it moved. The winged infant seemed to have come alive, which would not have been the strangest apparition April had witnessed, especially in the past few days.

They crept silently to the great entrance. April chanced a look at the priest's face a few times. He had bowed his head somewhat, but there was also some defiance, refusal to surrender to despair, even when his cherished sacred temple had become a deserted ruin. She felt a strange mix of admiration and irritation.

The massive door had suffered a lot, having been blown right off its hinges and laying on the floor, scorch marks covering it. It seemed a miracle that it hadn't turned to ash and soot. They stepped alongside it (a good measure of reverence preventing them both from stepping onto a church door) and stopped just one foot away from the entrance, glancing at each other nervously. This, April decided, was where she took the lead. Pursing her lips she snuck to the entrance and stuck her head outside, looking this way and that, to see if any immediate danger was ahead.

She had thought she had been prepared, but the sight made her gasp in horror anyway. It was far worse than she had imagined, two whole blocks had been brought down compeltely and a few others partially. She could see the unmoving bodies in rubble, buried under the ruins of their own homes, blood splattered on chunks of building blocks that lay on the ground, There were small blackened craters on the pavement - as little as she could see of it - left there by many explosions no doubt. The dust still stood thick in the air and it was hard to breath. The place was a warzone.

April took a few steps out, Raul following. She heard a sharp intake of breath but otherwise he remained silent. Looking around and taking in their disastrous surroundings she saw the cathedral in a completely different light. If it had seemed miserable and ruined before, now it stood proudly like an unconquered fortress, April could not imagine how it had survived with so little damage.

"My God!" The priest whispered, now walking forward, "..We must see if there are any survivors!" He said briskly a little louder and started to a pile of rubble where several limbs were protruding at strange angles. April opened her mouth to object, to point out that there was no sign of life here and if they started looking for it, they would have to be digging for weeks, but quickly closed her mouth, feeling that it would not be humane to even have such a selfish thought, let alone voice it, when a dying person may need their help. She almost saw her dark side from Bak Baar sneer at her. She shook her head and went after Raul, but almost at once a coarse voice stopped them both:

"Freeze! Both of you!" the voice commanded. A man was behind them, and the order he gave them suggested that he had a gun pointed at them. They stood motionless until the same voice told them to hold their hands up and turn around slowly. When they did, they faced a group of armed men, a police force, by the logos on their jackets but surprisingly none of them wore their suits. Either way the sight of them sent a rush of cold through April's entire body. She had not yet forgotten having signed a colonist contract, and though she had bothered to exchange her colonial uniform for a tunic she had snuck from Benrime's place and even torn the orange stripes off her pants, if the police checked her identity...

"Keep your hands where I can see them! Are you armed?" The man demanded.

"No, we're not!" Raul answered while April was caught up wondering why the policeman kept eyeing them like a paranoid and not giving an order to one of his men to search them. He continued this way before saying:

"List all the pieces of technology you're carrying!" Now this, she thought, was an extremely odd question. Again, the priest was the first to answer, she admired the steadiness in his voice so in contrast with how she felt at the moment.

"I have a phone! It's off though, the power..."

"Drop it on the ground!", the officer ordered, quite a bit louder than he'd sounded so far. April stared and judging by his momentary silence, father Raul must have been just as confused as she was. She noticed that all the cops were fidgeting in place anxiously, she turned her head to look at him in alarm.

"Father..? I think..."

"Drop it now!" the man shouted.

"Yes, yes, of course, I'll drop it." he said quickly, pulled off the morphing wristlet off and put it on the ground very slowly and carefully. April was observing the squad, they followed Raul's every movement, their eyes as intense as if they were watching a notorious terrorist dropping guns and explosives on the ground. Their sweaty skins glimmered in the faint sunrays that passed through all the fog and dust floating around. She wondered yet again why they were not wearing their suits now that, given the state of the neighborhood, they needed to more than ever before.

Once Raul was done, they ordered him to take a few steps on the side, two men were still aiming their guns at him, but the rest switched to April. "I don't have anything!" She said hesitantly. She thought of the folding knife in her pocket. Supposedly the police would want to know about such an object, as they usually did. She decided to try and be as much of an honest citizen as she could afford: "nothing more advanced than a small multifunctional folding knife, officer!" she added, attempting her best to sound harmless and innocent.

'What does it run on?" the policeman asked her and the innocent mask shattered instantly, the opportunity for sarcasm provided by this dumb question was too tempting.

"Physics." she answered with an air of mock innocence and saw the man purse his lips in anger but he restrained himself from verbal abuse or shooting her on the spot in order to teach her not to mess with him. Instead he ordered her to drop it as well and for them both to stand aside and told two of his men to search them. As unnerving the situation was and as strange the unorthodox sequence of their actions, April's spirit was slowly rising, and as she and Raul were thoroughly searched and released (without the phone though), her luck seemed to have picked up a little bit from the recent days' all time low. The squad leader gave them a very nervous and aggressive order to get the hell out of there and stay away from the neighborhood, so they started on their way down the apocalyptic Hope Street, or what was left of it, without a single argument. A few steps further she muttered, "How come they didn't check our identities? Didn't they have a gene scanner?"

"I don't know," father Raul muttered back, "but I thank God for it, especially on your part." He glanced at her and lowered his voice even more, almost whispering "You most certainly don't want to be dealing with the corps right now."

"Tell me about it", April replied, through grit teeth. "They seemed so on edge though, I mean no wonder but you'd think they would be more inclined to check every living being in sight."

"Quite true," he agreed and opened his mouth to say something else, but at that point gunshots from behind made them both jump and whirl around, eyes wide and ready to dart to the side if there was a shot directed at them. But all they saw was the same police squad huddled over the spot they had just left, aiming their guns down onto the ground.

"Did they…" gasped April "shoot the phone?", she turned to look at Raul who seemed to be just as puzzled as her, though their relief about the phone being shot instead of them was taking the central place in both their minds.

"I… I think so," He stammered. The cops seemed quite relieved themselves judging by what could be seen and heard of them from the distance, although what danger they'd been expecting from an old fashioned communication device was a mystery to them both. The commander looked up at the two.

"Get out of here both of you, there's nothing to do or see here anymore!" He called and turned his back on them.

"I think…" April started hesitantly taking careful steps back, "we should listen…" Indeed nobody else paid them any attention anymore, the troops took to examining the ruins and the dead bodies, and possibly barely alive people among those.

They passed a few ruined buildings in complete silence. The surroundings were almost deserted. A few times they thought they heard hurried footsteps nearby, but didn't see anyone emerge in the open.

"Do you think we should take a less straightforward route?" the priest asked, "we don't want to meet more cops every five minutes. If we take a few unnecessary turns..."

"No, I don't think so," April answered thoughtfully. "If the cops are on the main street, everyone hiding from them will be on the smaller streets and in dark corners. I'm pretty sure I don't prefer _them_ over police. Also, if some building is about to collapse, I want to have some space to run and not be stuck in a narrow alleyway."

Raul nodded in wordless agreement, seeing sense in her words. They followed the street to the end. April noticed the barely recognizable subway station with a completely blackened entrance descending underground. The stairs lay in ruin. At some point they passed what looked like a melted street sign and a car. The question _what did this?_ Hung above them like their personal dark cloud. Public transportation definitely wouldn't be available to them for a long time, so they had a couple of hours ahead to contemplate the catastrophe.

At the end the Hope street joined a much narrower street and turned left. As they went further and further, the surroundings became noticeably more sound, though it was still far from an acceptable shape. And yet, the more distance they put between themselves and that notorious neighborhood, the less it felt like civilization was on the brink of perishing. In fact, after an hour or so the two of them emerged onto a crossroad that looked almost normal, save for a crashed hovercraft in the middle of the street, but that was not as impressive as it would have been a while ago.

Two streets sloped upwards, a long low building was standing where they branched away from each other and went their separate ways. It had a V shape with a blunt rounded corner and was considerably lower than any other buildings in the vicinity. Glancing upwards April saw people gathered on the roof. One tall man was standing just on the edge, feet wide apart, arms raised, head thrown back and apparently muttering something, he would sometimes raise his voice and a few words would reach her ears, although this wasn't a language she had ever heard. Another man sat on his side and rocked slightly back and forth, he too glancing upwards. Several others were behind them, coming in and out of view.

April stared at the man standing on the edge nervously, this looked like it could be some sort of a suicide ritual. She just opened her mouth, not quite sure what she would say... call the man above and try to persuade him not to (which immediately seemed hopeless) or ask Raul to get away and avoid being flattened onto the ground by a potential jumper.

"He won't jump." Raul said unexpectedly sounding quite sure of what he was saying. April gave him and inquiring look. "He's not suicidal," Raul explained, looking somewhat grim, "the Church of Voltec does not encourage suicide, you see." April's eyes widened, "They need their worshipers alive and kicking, unless there's 'proper' time and reason to dispose of them."

April craned her neck up again and frowned at the people on the roof. "How do you know they're with the Voltec?" she asked dubiously. "Or that he's not going to jump anyway?"

"It's not the first time I'm seeing them at it." He answered and took a deep sigh. "They're praying or meditating in their own way, or that's the closest thing to what it is they're doing. It is my understanding that the act involves thrill seeking, adrenaline, and..." he hesitated and when he continued he sounded a bit subdued, "finding themselves a sense of Balance." He had put a strong emphasis on the last word. "Yes, " the priest smiled warily at April's surprise, "It is a fancy variation on the traditional teachings of the Balance. Of course, they have changed too many things for it to count as the actual Balance philosophy, but you can trace its origins when you know what to look for. I'm guessing, this man should be trying to find the balance between the two opposite feelings - the safety of the solid surface under his feet, and the abyss and prospect of death below. They often position themselves like this in their pursuit of spiritual experience."

"You know a lot about the Voltec," April observed.

"Not at all," father Raul disagreed and he turned to the right to follow the narrow street up. April quickly trotted after him, now that she had been convinced that no acts of heroism were required on their part, she had no interest left for a bunch of fanatics on the roof. "It is impossible to know a lot about them unless you join them." He went on. "They don't let that much on, only the basics of their world view. If they see any genuine interest, they will test you, and you are sure to get more information than the general public, but you won't get to the core of their belief system unless you become one of them. Then it's all about secrecy. They keep things to themselves. Perhaps," he paused, thoughtful, "that has added to their appeal. People are drawn to mystery, the idea of a hidden truth..."

"Yeah…" April agreed quietly, an unpleasant memory tugging at her thoughts. After a few more steps she eyed him sideways and asked carefully. "Have you...studied them then? The Voltec's teachings?"

He chuckled, "Well, if you must know," he smiled at her somewhat embarrassed, "I almost became one of them at some point." April raised her brows in surprise. "Yes," he nodded, "I was one of those truth seekers myself. I seem to remember telling you how I had struggled with my faith before the Sentinels found me." She nodded, "It was in that period. I was exploring around searching for answers to my many questions and the Voltec's philosophy... it seemed to match up quite well with my findings, so I was drawn to them. I went through some of their books and guides, listened to a few of their preachers. I was quite taken and the model of the world presented by them seemed fantastic. But there was something that put me off too, their constant thrill seeking and search for glory. They looked up to power rather than goodness and it didn't sit well with me. I was torn. I could've joined them had I tried, but something was pulling me back. Then the Sentinels came knocking on my door and everything cleared up for me. I left the Voltec and never glanced back."

"How did the Sentinels find you?" April asked. Raul frowned and paused before answering.

"Truth be told, I've always been a bit confused about it myself. It started when a stranger left an anonymous note for me and offered some guidance. I was given some vague directions, a puzzle, if you will. I was clueless as to what it all meant." April was nodding, smiling bitterly, this part of the story sounded only too familiar. "It took me a couple of months to decipher the message."

"Months?" April exclaimed, she'd thought _she_ 'd had it bad.

"Oh yes," he smiled, "I was frustrated."

"What did they tell you?" April asked, a trace of bitterness in her voice, "To go to a place where dreams burned, which turned out to be the closest baker's store?"

Raul laughed genuinely, "Not quite, but pretty close. After a ridiculous amount of research I finally found the place they were referring to and met a person who turned out to be an informant of Stark's Sentinels. He listened to me and reported to them. A few days later they contacted me themselves and decided to share some of their knowledge. There was a little test of loyalty to see if I could be trusted. They didn't know who had given me the directions. Also my association with the Voltec, even unofficial, didn't speak in my favor."

"I can imagine." April said, pushing her sideways bangs off her face. "What kind of a test?"

"Oh the usual. A simulated situation where I was... 'tempted' to give out a valuable information about them. My refusal to betray them proved my honesty and I unofficially became an Instrum."

"Why unofficially?" April asked.

"Because most things with the Sentinels in Stark are unofficial. It's safer this way, you see. In our world, where even the strongest security can be breached and there are so many ways to steal information... We feel it's safer to keep such important things in our own minds."

"That's hardly that much safer," April remarked, quirking an eyebrow, "if someone needed that information, there are too many ways to make people talk. Or they could perform a personality modification and you would be willing to spill all the secrets without anyone asking. I'm sure the Vanguard can do something like that."

"Their power is great, no doubt about that," Raul agreed, "but they would need to know whom to question."

April couldn't help scoffing, "That's a very thin thread you're hanging on, father."

"It probably is, but there is no better alternative." He sighed heavily. "Cortez often told me how it was on the other side. The Sentinels flourish there, don't they? He described the temple of Marcuria once, it sounded so fascinating. You're so lucky you get to visit the place any time you want." He hesitated for several seconds before continuing, frowning, "I wonder how he knew all that though... I know he was not a Shifter since he told me so himself and I believe he was truthful. And yet… he always spoke of Arcadia as if he had seen it with his own eyes." Raul glanced at her sideways.

"Yeah..." April muttered, subdued now that they touched this matter. So far she had somehow avoided discussing Cortez, save for notifying the priest of his apparent doom. On his part, Raul had spared her and left his probably countless questions mostly to himself. His consideration made her feel half relieved and half embarrassed for being so obviously distraught and miserable for the loss. _He was not_ _ **my**_ _loss,_ she kept repeating to herself, in vain, trying to summon all the anger, all the frustration, remember all the troubles she had already faced and was still facing. And she tried her best to hate him for it.

But then, she had also admitted to herself that the matter of Cortez's identity couldn't stay untouched forever, no matter how many times she postponed it. Sooner or later she'd have to discuss him. It seemed only fair to start with the person who counted the "man" among his friends.

"I think Cortez had some other ways of traveling.", she said abruptly, Raul's eyes snapped to her at once, eager to hear the information she was finally willing to give, "the Arcadian Vestrum knew him, and I think Cortez said he had actually met the man. And..." she suddenly remembered, "I've met someone who went from Stark to Arcadia, even though he couldn't Shift, and he was an old friend of Cortez! He was... sent there, somehow, I'm pretty sure it was Cortez's doing."

"The man had many inexplicable powers." Raul noted, fascinated.

"Hmpf, yeah... He..." Something stopped her again. Why, oh why did it feel so wrong to give away his secrets? How had he deserved that sort of consideration? "He definitely did..." She muttered again, trying not to sound irritated. Then a thought occurred to her. Trying to divert his attention and at the same time genuinely curious, she asked "Would these Sentinels have any knowledge about any means of travel to Arcadia without Shifting? I don't know, something in the Scriptures..?"

Raul shook his head. "No. Shifting has always been the only known way for anyone to pass between the two. Of course, a lot of knowledge has been lost on this side of the Divide. We don't have as huge a library as I hear Marcuria does, the Sentinels could hardly have the opportunity since we have to be in hiding or on the run all the time. Perhaps you can find more information in Arcadia."

April pursed her lips, weighing her next question. When she spoke, she tried to keep her voice as casual as she possibly could.

"Can the Draic Kin travel between Stark and Arcadia?.. They're supposed to be really powerful." She added hastily, seeing his quizzical look.

"I can't give you a direct yes or no answer to that", Raul answered slowly, "but you know, I've read something that points to that... No, not quite. Apparently they have some means of communication across the Divide, and maybe a way to travel... But it's mostly speculation, the Kin are a very mysterious subject for us all. In fact, I thought you might know more about them than anyone else, having met them in person."

The next words pretty much fell out of April's mouth, "You've met one too." She blurted out, not needing to look at her companion to know that his head had snapped in her direction, eyes wide in surprise, expectant and probably already guessing whom she meant. After all, their number of shared friends was extremely limited and only one of them fit the role. She turned her head to Raul and wasn't disappointed to see the understanding already blooming on his face.

"Cortez." She said, confirming his thoughts.

"Cortez…" He half whispered, almost choking on the word. His mouth was slightly open and a faint smile was noticeable on his face as he took it in. "A Draic Kin..." He said in awe. April nodded. "I never… I mean, of course I couldn't, but…" he let out a short laugh, "Well, that explains a lot… Not everything, but a lot." He looked at her wonderingly, "But how did you find out?"

"He.. ah… transformed after he and McAllen fell off the building. They both transformed." She added still more bitterly, dropping yet another bomb on Father Raul's head, leaving the latter completely lost for words while he was digesting this information. "This is… unbelievable… I could never imagine…" he said, his face growing more somber. They walked in silence once more, passing one block after another. April tried to imagine what the priest could've been thinking. Remembering all the strangeness of his old friend he had never been able to understand? Regretting not having the opportunity to ask him the countless questions he would have asked if he had known? Or maybe, just like herself, he was disappointed he hadn't been trusted with the information before. The thought reminded her of Tobias and his evasive answers to her questions about Cortez. Tobias knew, no doubt about that.

"Do you think the Sentinels of Stark knew who he really was?" April asked with great interest.

Raul shook his head, "I'm afraid not," he answered, his voice low and thoughtful again, "they had never even heard of him."

April stumbled her foot at that moment "What?"

"Yes," he nodded gravely, "after my first meeting with Cortez, I described him to them, I was sure he was with them, you know… They had no clue who he was and how he knew the things he knew, both about me, about them, about everything. And no matter how many times I tried to get some explanation out of him, he wouldn't say a word. He was also refusing to meet them, claiming it was unnecessary. I never found out why he acted so. Sometimes it seemed that he didn't trust them… Although, after what you've told me…" He took a deep breath " _The Kin keep to themselves_ ", he quoted the familiar words.

April pursed her lips and didn't respond. She was puzzled and disappointed. If Cortez had never even met the sentinels, the chances of them having answers to her most urgent questions were slimmer than she'd thought. She walked a few steps before realizing Raul had stopped. He called after her, "Over here!" She looked back and saw him standing expectantly near a corner of an unremarkable building. Five floors, small windows, gray and gloomy. It was a faceless block with small, low apartments, such they had fallen in habit of building only about sixty years ago, for those who simply didn't have any other choice but to live there. The street was lined with them, and in this one, as she had been told, the Sentinels resided. April knew one shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but she couldn't help thinking that for a place she had so many hopes for it looked rather hopeless.

For a while April stood appraising the building. Weak yellowish light was flickering in a few windows on the last floor. She saw a shadow of a tall man apparently leaning against the window, watching the street. He turned his head down. Inexplicably April felt sure that he was now watching her. He remained pretty much unmoving for a while.

"Are you coming?" Raul called, snapping her attention to him. He was headed for the left side of the block, entering the backyard.

"Yeah." April answered and followed him, at the last moment she glanced up at that window again, just in time to see the man swiftly move away from it. There was something familiar about that silhouette and she wondered if he was their host.

The yard was empty, small and deserted looking. Only a few tall trees stood at its border, represented by an old red brick wall. A part of it had fallen in ruin, or maybe it had been smashed through. The building itself seemed to have survived most of the recent hazards, as well as the whole street, which, pitiful as it looked, had much less of that doomsday atmosphere she and father Raul had left in the afternoon and she could only be grateful for that.

"It's right here." Raul gestured and led the way to one of the dark entrances. The sun had not set yet, but it hit the block from the opposite side, leaving this one completely in shadows. It was hard to see the stairs that led to the upper floors. The elevator was, of course, out of question. After a few minutes and a few curses (April stumbled over an extra step she hadn't suspected to be there) the priest halted. They were on the fourth floor if she had counted correctly. On the next one, they could see one of the doors open, faint light was coming from the apartment and in front of the door stood a man, the same one, she was sure, that had watched them from the window. His face was still not discernible, but she recognized him the moment he spoke in a familiar warm voice.

"April! I'm so happy to meet you again!"


	3. Tale 1 - Chapter 02

**_Tale One - The breach_**

 **CHAPTER 02**

It was none other than Adrian - the twelfth Guardian of the Balance himself. He came running down the stairs to greet her and seemed ready to hug her, though he restrained himself, stopping himself short in front of her. Behind him light slowly grew beyond the open door of the apartment he'd come out of. Apparently, someone else was coming out to meet them, carrying a candle.

"I'm happy to see you too!" April beamed at him and she meant it. Adrian's face, she saw in the pale light, cracked in a hearty smile. Meeting him of all people in that place was very unexpected (in fact, she'd hardly expected to meet him at all) and she was going to ask how he had gotten there, but noticed him looking at her companion. "Oh.. This is father Raul," she gestured to the priest, "and this is Adrian, the twelfth Guardian." she said to Raul, who, instead of reacting to the identity of the man stared at April with a mix of puzzlement and fascination. She stopped for a moment, confused by his behavior.

"And in English?" said Raul after a few moments, smiling kindly. April merely blinked at him, then, after a moment she realized what had happened.

"I'm sorry", she sighed and gave him a sheepish look, "is this English?" Raul nodded, smiling more broadly and she introduced them both to each other again, taking care which language she spoke to either one of them. This time the priest was properly astonished and honored to have met such a special person, while the Guardian expressed his respect to his stature as both a priest in a Christian church and a Sentinel Minstrum. "I never knew the two could coexist in one person!" He exclaimed, while shaking Raul's hand enthusiastically. Their exchange of pleasantries was left for April to translate from English to Na'ven and the other way. The task was slightly confusing at first, considering that both sounded exactly the same to her ears. After a few tries, however, she found that switching was somewhat similar to Shifting. Like all of her magic – as little as she'd done - it was triggered on and off by the power of will and once she knew how it felt, it was nothing but a blink of an eye.

Another person came out of the apartment soon, with a candle in his hand. He was a broad shouldered man with pale gray eyes and sharp features, his dark hair was gray around the temples. He was glaring at them with obvious disapproval, a lot like a stern teacher would when walking in a classroom full of misbehaving students.

"People!" He said loudly, his sharp tenor immediately shutting them up, "Could you go _inside_ first and _then_ proceed to loud introductions?" He jerked his head towards the other two doors on that same floor with a meaningful look.

"Of course, sorry." Raul answered, smiling pleasantly and motioned April and Adrian to precede him. They all followed the irritable man inside the apartment, shuffling single filed into a very narrow and short corridor. Their hosts led the way passing another very small passage to the right and into a tiny guestroom. The candle was set down on a polished dark wooden table in the middle of the room, where it cast dim light around revealing aged walls with once beige paper, now darkened and peeling in a few places. Around the table there were a few wooden chairs as well as a sofa along one wall and two armchairs of a fitting design. All this combined with a set of closets occupying the space along the opposite wall and the apartment's pretty low ceiling, as well as two doors leading out on both sides shut, the guestroom somehow felt even smaller than the room she'd rented at the Border House, with just four people it already felt crowded.

"Well, have a seat, anywhere you like." The man gestured vaguely. "Although I'd prefer our guest to be introduced first." He turned to April expectantly, his expression was not that of suspicion, but it was stony, his body language overbearing. April found his whole demeanor unnerving, she had to remind herself that unlike others in the room this man had no clue who she was, had every reason to be guarded and a long explanation was in order. She would need some patience since, by all accounts this was one of Stark's Sentinels.

"April Ryan, pleased to meet you." She said courtly, extending her hand, which he shook, looking just the same and instead of offering his name in return he glanced at Raul waiting for, or rather, demanding an explanation.

"She's a friend of ours," the priest offered not most helpfully, but that couldn't be helped, April thought. She could already see some storytelling hours ahead of themselves. "She's a Shifter, a local one. And April, this is Euan Clark, or Vestrum Euan, as few people know him." And so she'd expected, given his attitude.

"A Shifter… Can't meet one of those every day. I assume," the Vestrum's voice was slow and steady, he measuring words, eyeing her appraisingly, "she already knows who and _what_ we are and doesn't need any explanations?" He turned his head to the priest, "Your recruit?"

"Umm... Not really, no." Raul answered, "she is recruited, for the lack of a better word, by Cortez. You know… _him_." April watched Vestrum Euan's reaction carefully. He frowned, his eyes narrowed at him. He obviously recognized the name, and just as obviously didn't find it to be enough of an icebreaker.

"The mysterious old man?" and he turned sharply to April, still not exactly suspicious, but very close now, "A friend of yours?"

April wasn't really sure what to answer to this. "Uh... I don't think that's the word, exactly..." She managed. The man raised his eyebrows, scrutinizing her, as if that would give him any answers.

"It's a very long story, Euan," Raul interjected again, "but rest assured she can be trusted. If everyone would sit down, we'll explain it as quickly as we can and then we also have a lot of talking to do about... Everything that's been going on."

April would never have believed that the last week's events could be summed up and relayed without missing out any essential detail in a time limit of twenty minutes. And yet, as far as she could tell, she ended telling her story just that soon. Father Raul provided some details on his part. When they exhausted their information, or its shortened version, both fell silent and waited for the Vestrum to bombard them with questions, but he seemed to be at a loss as to what he should ask. His forehead was wrinkled and brows drawn together, his eyes searching the empty space between himself and them, lips pursed. April stole a glance at Adrian who had been sitting very quietly in an armchair since the whole time they had been talking. He had a bit of a helpless look about him. It suddenly hit her that he probably didn't understand a word they were saying. Twelve centuries were more than enough to render any language unrecognizable and she had no idea what his native language was to begin with. He jerked his head to her suddenly, aware that she'd been watching him, and rewarded her with a small smile that made him look so much younger than he had seemed before. _Although,_ April reminded herself, _if we don't count his time as the Guardian, he can be very young._

 _"_ So," Vestrum Euan's voice broke the silence, drawing their attention back to himself, he still seemed caught up in deep contemplation, "that's quite a tale you guys got there. The last part" he glanced at Adrian who straightened somewhat, but was still clearly out of it, "actually sounds familiar. The former Guardian has told me all about his belated replacement. And a young maiden that heroically rescued him from the Vanguard's clutches." He turned to April, tilting his head, "It seems like you've been doing a lot of hard work in our favor, Ms. Ryan."

"Uh... " April found it hard to find the right thing to say to this statement. For one, he was still keeping that undefined tone that made it hard to understand whether he meant what he said or there was sarcasm or something more unpleasant behind his words. And besides, she had been determined to be on friendly terms with the Sentinels, and the only honest retort that came to her mind - _your dirty work_ \- would put that alliance in jeopardy before it had formed.

"Well, I know that at least _some_ of what you've told me is true." He went on, pushing her temper with every word, "I guess we will need to discuss and analyze your story in a bit more detail later, but for now let's focus on the most pressing matter - the Armageddon outside. I assume, you've walked all the way here?" He addressed father Raul, who nodded grimly. "It's a relief you got here in one piece, to be honest. The things I've seen these few days..." His eyes widened a bit as he seemed to recall the horrors of the past few days and he wriggled his hands together. "First let me tell you in short what happened here. This gentleman" and with that he gestured towards Adrian, who once again snapped to attention, "emerged from a portal that opened in this apartment's kitchen three days ago. I got the story from him that he was the Guardian and he was finally replaced, although I can't start guessing how he knew about this place. In a few minutes it all started. First I heard screams and sounds of explosion, not just from the outside, but even from apartments. My own screen kicked the bucket and there was a complete blackout afterwards. While we were all busy running around, trying to make heads and tails of the incidents and help... Or something... It became surreal. I'm sure you saw it too - that magical looking vortex and then it started raining vehicles. Most cars have automatic safety pads, as ridiculous as some used to find them. But hovercrafts were smashing into buildings like meteors! I actually went outside…" He sighed and closed his eyes, rubbing the bridge of his nose with two fingers, seemingly exasperated by his own stupidity. April exchanged a look with Raul, both were remembering the pandemonium they witnessed on the Hope Street after emerging from their hiding place, trying to imagine going through it and making it back alive and uninjured. "Didn't know how lucky I was to be stuck in this little hole until then." The Vestrum snorted in derision, "Random small explosions and one crashed car aside, also marauders running amok of course, it's been positively peaceful. Except for that... Thing... Whatever the hell it was, I've never seen anything like it, or felt, for that matter…" He ran his fingers through his hair, lost in thought again.

"I have." April offered quietly and everyone's eyes were on her in an instant. "But only in Arcadia. The Chaos storm. I encountered it once, and it was very far away but it looked and felt very similar to that. I don't know what could cause it to appear here in Stark though…"

"I can offer you a guess, Ms. Ryan." The Vestrum cut her off, suddenly more stern and his voice sharp and cold, almost causing her jump. "It was all the chaotic force our friend here" he jerked his head slightly to Adrian, "let through in his overtime hours, which the new Guardian has scraped out of our world, not very gently." April felt her mouth go dry at these words. She herself had tentatively suggested this very possibility to father Raul only a day before, feeling a horrible weight of guilt, even though she couldn't find an alternative solution to the task she had been given. Having a hand in such a catastrophe, no matter how necessary, how inevitable it was, made her insides churn. And now this man had thrown it in her face just like that. She suppressed the urge to gulp and tried to convince herself that she was only imagining his hard stare being accusatory. "Or, at least, that's what the former Guardian is placing his bets on." Vestrum Euan continued, withdrawing his gaze to April's relief and turning it to Adrian, who seemed to have given up trying to pretend he was a part of the conversation and simply glanced back at him without any real interest looking a bit like a bored child. "Personally, I think he has a point. That's the only explanation that works, anyway." Euan leaned back in the chair, folding his arms and looking around at them all.

April turned to Adrian, "Was this necessary?" she asked, "Couldn't Gordon repair the damage any other way? Without causing all..." she fumbled for a suitable word, "this?"

"Could you repeat that in Na'ven?" he asked, sounding a little frustrated but still managing a faint resemblance of a smile.

"Right, sorry." April sighed and clicked the imaginary switch in her head - which she was starting to envision as a Steampunk styled trigger on a desk adorned with neat ornaments - and tried again. Adrian frowned a bit.

"The Guardian only does what the Balance requires. And the Balance only requires the proper channeling of the streams that flow through Stark and Arcadia. That's all. The rest doesn't concern the Balance, therefore it doesn't concern the Guardian."

"But..." April protested more meekly than she'd intended, "doesn't he care about the consequences of his actions? Doesn't he care that so many people can die in freak accidents?"

"He cannot care about such things, April, even if he were somehow aware that such tragedies happened here, and he can't be," Adrian's voice grew in intensity and April swore she heard a defensive note in his words. She didn't know how to feel about him possibly sharing this unjustified twinge of guilt that had been bothering her for the past few days. Him going along with her shame was far from reassuring. _But he shouldn't be feeling guilty, there was nothing he could do against the will of the Balance... And neither could I,_ she told herself stubbornly again while Adrian went on, _"_ A guardian cannot feel the way we do. Whatever my feelings and wishes and dreams were the Realm took them away from me. I was left as a clean vessel to be filled with something else instead. That's what Gordon is at the moment. He is incapable of caring, or feeling anything humans normally do. And, like I said, he cannot be aware of the events that don't concern the Balance of the worlds." There was a vey strained silence stretched between them, almost like a tangible thread. Despite herself April pierced the Guardian that was with the look she was sure he could understand, it was evident in the way he returned it with one of his own, his mouth turned into a thin line. "If the new Guardian had appeared in due time," he said, his voice suddenly deeper and every word emphasized, "I wouldn't have remained in the Tower for two centuries when I was no longer suitable for the job. But it didn't happen that way and unfortunately what the thirteenth Guardian has done was necessary. He had to clean up the mess I... " Adrian stopped abruptly, his expression changed into that of complete confidence to April's surprise and confusion, and when he spoke once more, his voice cut the stuffy air in the room, sharper than knife. "The Vanguard's plans have failed, but it didn't go without a sacrifice. This was the only way left to save the Balance." With that he slumped into his armchair and looked away from them, seemingly taking interest in the furniture around him, rather than people in it.

"Well there you go. As it so often happens, we chose between two evils." Euan said, "Or, rather, you chose between two evils." He amended, tilting his head again and giving April an appraising look.

"You understood that", April stared. "You speak Na'ven too? I thought only..."

"Yes, there's a textbook, actually." He answered nonchalantly. "I didn't learn it the way people usually do. Of course, the textbook is far from perfect and covers just the basics, but it's still very useful. How else do you think I would understand the twelfth Guardian? Or any Shifter that crosses from Arcadia, as few as they are..."

 _This makes no sense,_ April thought to herself, giving the Vestrum a look full of disbelief. _How could anyone create a textbook for Na'ven if every person who learns it, ends up hearing it as if it's their own native language?_

Her thoughts must have been easy to guess, since at that moment father Raul spoke again, answering her unasked question. "It's a continuous work of Shifters throughout thousands of years. Shifters that crossed from Arcadia to Stark, that is. They would quickly realize the need to learn a new language no matter where in Stark they emerged. They would make notes, some would create dictionaries, write down some useful phrases and so on."

"We had a few such works presented to us from Arcadian Sentinels in the past, apparently." Vestrum Euan nodded, scratching his neck. "It took serious work from our own Minsrums to finally assemble a "Na'ven for English Speakers" textbook. I think the source materials were for at least six languages, but they managed to scrap up something."

"Oh..." It was all April could say. Somehow she started to relax a little. Since the moment she'd set foot in the claustrophobic apartment this was the first time she felt like she was in the presence of an actual Vestrum - someone more educated in the matters of the two worlds and the Balance than she was, someone capable and willing to provide useful knowledge, as opposed to some man filled with suspicions that she had to coax usefulness out of - she had met too many of those already.

"Now, I hope you will answer a few of my questions, Ms. Ryan." He straightened in his chair, assuming a somewhat rigid pose.

"Uh, sure," April answered, repeating to herself that honesty was the best option where the Sentinels were involved, that this man was her ally, but still feeling a little uneasy.

"Good. Don't get me wrong, but..." his brows furrowed and he seemed to be looking for the right words, "a part of your story is very disturbing."

April eyed him in surprise, "Disturbing? What do you mean? What part?"

"The part where you said that it was the most coldblooded assassin the Vanguard had who became the thirteenth Guardian. I'm sorry, but that hardly sounds like good news to me."

 _Of course._ She thought to herself. _That abridged version of the events can't possibly satisfy anyone._ And she mentally growled at the prospect of going into detail about every small eccentricity of her journey - which there were plenty - she felt any resident of Stark, even a Vestrum would find bewildering.

"The thing is," she started, resigned to fill in all the blanks she had left during the first storytelling session, "Gordon was a victim of some seriously messed up experiments the Vanguard performed on him. He was like... Split in two halves and the other half was in Arcadia, that's why he was so messed up in the head, but I uh... Fixed him. I returned his other half to him." _This sounds more confusing than any vague claims I made without an explanation before._ She thought, quite rightfully so, and she could see from Vestrum Euan's expression that he felt the same way about it.

"His _other half?_ " he asked slowly, emphasizing every word.

"His chaotic part," she struggled to remember how it was explained to her, "when Cortez told me about it, he said it was something you would call a person's soul." She saw his expression grow more skeptical, his eyes widened, yet she pressed on, "I encountered it in Arcadia twice, it had a form of a huge vortex of... Of chaotic energy, I guess. It was terrifying and it chased me all the way to the Guardians Realm. But I managed to capture it and when Gordon showed up in the Guardians Tower, I sort of put it back." For a moment she wondered whether or not she needed to elaborate on the means she used to do all these things, but decided she would be asked later anyway. "All of a sudden he was like a completely different person. He sounded different, acted different, I might have imagined it, but even his appearance seemed to have changed after the... Reunification." She stopped, watching if the Vestrum was taking in all he had heard the way she was hoping he would. It was hard to tell. "And then," she went on, "the Balance chose him, so obviously, he was suitable for the job." _He was, wasn't he?_ She wondered briefly yet again. The apparently crude work he was doing with reigning the worlds was making it hard to cast away her doubts completely, though no matter how she looked at it, all logic pointed to that conclusion.

"You captured his soul and put it back in him..." the man repeated, prompting for an admittedly much needed explanation, "How?"

"I used this!" April answered and she reached for the Talisman of the Balance hanging on her neck. It seemed like they were finally addressing the things she had been bothered by most, the purpose and meaning of the mysterious medallion being not the least of them. She took the golden colored disc out of concealment in her borrowed tunic and showed it to him. The gesture drew a great interest of everyone in the room, Adrian returned his attention to the conversation in earnest. Having seen the magical object in action, his eyes lit with curiosity, he leaned forward to get a better look, so did father Raul who had only glimpsed the Talisman once back at the Cathedral and chosen not to ask about it.

Vestrum Euan extended his hand expectantly, "May I?" he asked politely and with just a tad of reluctance April pulled it off and gave it to him for inspection. The man put it in his palm and peered closely, tracing the symbol of the Balance lightly with his finger. After a few seconds of silence he spoke again without looking up, "What is its purpose?"

"I don't know, really." April answered readily. "It has some powerful magic though. The Arcadian Vestrum gave it to me, he said it was supposed to be given to the thirteenth Guardian and well... He thought it was me, so..." she trailed off, the subject was very sore at that point.

"Then how come you still have it?" Euan asked, still scrutinizing the Talisman, turning it this way and that.

"I..." she had to admit to herself that she didn't have a good enough excuse for having it in her possession, "Gordon never asked for it and didn't seem to need it for anything..." she said clearly on a defensive note, "and... I guess so much was happening that I forgot about that." When said out loud it sounded incredibly stupid of her.

The Vestrum finally took his gaze off the medallion and directed it at her. He sounded rather reproachful when he asked, "you _forgot that_ , Ms. Ryan?"

His tone seemed to hit a nerve, April felt a sudden prickle of pride at being told off like a child. She straightened her back a bit and put her best effort in arranging her face into a cold stony expression not unlike Vestrum Euan's as she answered, "Well, yes, I actually did forget about it."

He snorted, raising April's irritation ever higher. "I guess it was such a small detail, it was easy to miss." he noted sarcastically, and April felt her patience snapping at seams.

"Compared to all the shit that was going on you'd better believe it was!" she retorted, barely keeping her voice level. The other two witnesses of the conversation strained visibly, father Raul shifted uncomfortably and opened his mouth to speak, no doubt volunteering for a peacekeeper's job. Euan, on the other hand, didn't seem too bothered by her sudden show of temper.

"I guess you may have a point," he agreed, "but what are you going to do now? Can you return to the Guardians Realm to give this to the Thirteenth Guardian? Or are you planning to wait for the next thousand years until his term is over?"

April had no answer to this. Neither one was a plausible option, of course. The only way she could see it going to its rightful owner was for someone to give it to him a millennium later when he finally returned to his world, and the most likely candidates for the job were, naturally, the Sentinels. Unreasonably her heart skipped a beat at the very thought of parting with it, especially if it was to be left with Stark's Sentinels, who, save for father Raul, had yet to gain her trust and confidence. But again, she _knew_ it wasn't hers.

"Did they tell you anything about its origins?" Vestrum Euan asked when he was assured she had no response for his question. "I've never read anything about such an artifact in our scriptures. Why would the Thirteenth Guardian need it?"

"They didn't know that either." She said quietly, watching the Talisman still in his hands, "Vestrum Tobias told me the scriptures didn't explain much about it and only one of them even mentioned it. All he knew was that it had been there for over ten thousand years and the Thirteenth Guardian would come to collect it one day."

Something apparently clicked, "Could this be the Talisman of the Balance?" Euan asked abruptly, "The one spoken about in… the thirteenth Scripture? The Scripture of Reunification?"

April felt more excited than she'd felt in days, "Yes!" She exclaimed. "That's it! Can you tell me more about it!?"

The man closed his eyes and recited: " _Of no substance that ever was in this realm, of no flames that ever licked its air was the Talisman of the Balance forged. It's worth is not gold, but world. For a great purpose it was born, just like the one by whom it is destined to be worn. A Guardian shall follow a Guardian and the Balance shall not fail. Only the Thirteenth who carried the Balance shall carry the Talisman._ " He fell silent.

"Is that all?" April asked.

"All the scripture says about the Talisman, yes."

April's excitement dissipated instantly. "It doesn't add anything to all the _nothing_ I already knew", she murmured, disappointed.

"But you claim you've used it a few times already", he said curiously, "and you've just told me you trapped a man's soul in it and gave it back to him. How did you do that? Or know how to do that?"

"I didn't know." she argued feebly, "I just... Acted on instinct, I guess... That thing attacked me, I don't even know why I thought that the Talisman would help me, but the idea was just there in my head. I took it and sort of... Willed it to release its power and it absorbed Gordon's chaotic part into it... And then when Gordon turned up in the Tower, I sort of did the same thing only in reverse. I know it doesn't make sense."

Euan eyed her thoughtfully, "No, I wouldn't say that," he said slowly, "do you happen to be an Artisan, Ms. Ryan?"

April had to rake her brains for a bit to figure out his meaning, until she remembered Benrime telling her just that. "Yes," she answered quickly, "or I would be with proper training," she amended. "That's what a Seer told me in Arcadia."

"But you have _not_ had proper training," he went on "and yet you were able to produce some damn impressive magic _if_ we are to believe your story." _**If**_ _we are to believe?_ April thought fiercely, not knowing whether or not expressing her full displeasure would do her any good, but knowing she couldn't hide it properly anyway. "Then again," he interrupted her thoughts, "that's definitely a sign of great Artisans - producing magic with their power of will - and could be the reason you were recruited for fixing the world's problems, even though you don't seem to be the most suitable candidate otherwise. Speaking of which…" he turned in his seat and placed the Talisman on the tabletop behind him, April's eyes followed the motion longingly, wanting to ask for it to be returned to her, but reminded herself yet again that it would be considered imprudent of her, since it was, as she herself knew – and she would be better off coming to terms with it soon - not hers. "You said that this old man, this Cortez was one of the Draic Kin, and so was the grand leader of the Church of Voltec." Euan continued, drawing her attention back.

"Yeah, it's true." She replied, eyes still skirting to the medallion.

"You've also told me they both fell off a skyscraper roof, arranged a battle in the air and you have a reason to believe they died?"

"At least one of them, yeah." said April.

"You are aware that the Draic Kin are immensely powerful beings, I'm sure."

"Of course I am!" she answered, affronted.

"Then why do you think that they died after _falling off the roof_?"

"I don't think they died _because_ of the fall, they were fighting each other. And it's only one of them I have a clue for." She drew the silent pocket watch out of her satchel that lay in her lap and showed it to him. "This used to belong to the Red of the Kin, he gave it to his friend who gave it to me. It had certain magic in it, it helped me Shift at the beginning. Anyway, he referred to it as his heart, and it stopped ticking after their fall."

"That doesn't prove anything." Vestrum Euan argued, "that's an old mechanical watch as far as I see, it could just need winding."

"Do you actually think I haven't tried that?!" April glared at him. "It doesn't work anymore, at all. I know even this may not prove that he's dead, but it definitely means _something_. It wasn't a coincidence that it stopped when it did, plus I haven't seen or heard either one of them since then. They both vanished!" She put the watch back in the satchel a bit hastily. She felt like she'd needed a small compensation for having the Talisman of the Balance taken from her. Denying Vestrum Euan the right to handle something that had "descended" into her ownership from Cortez was a small consolation, but it was the sort of a petty thing she couldn't deny herself. "Anyway," she continued trying to calm down, "I'll try to find out what happened to them. I hope you'll help me with that."

"Well, naturally, if what you say is true, we want to find them as our top most priority, as soon as circumstances permit. But what do you intend to do? Are you planning on investigating their disappearance yourself?"

"I am," April readily confirmed it, "and I'd be very grateful if you shared what you know about them. Anything that could help me find a lead."

Euan frowned at her, puzzled, "I don't understand what you mean," he started.

"Say, for example, are they reborn when they die, like the White?"

"The White of the Kin is reborn after dying?" Euan frowned at her. This left her speechless. For a moment she wondered If the man was joking. There was no trace of humor, however, neither in his voice nor on his face.

"You mean, you didn't know that?" she asked in wonder.

"No," he answered with the kind of air which implied that his ignorance in the matter was quite natural. "This is the first time I'm hearing this. Is it common knowledge in Arcadia? Because on this side of the Divide we're sort of short on information about the Kin."

April thought back to her visits at the Temple, as well as her little research at the Marcurian Enclave. It was true that the information about the Kin was incredibly scarce. But she'd still found some basic facts about them. Then again, she remembered, she knew about the rebirth of The White of the Draic Kin only because she'd witnessed it herself. Neither Vestrum Tobias, nor anyone among the Magical races – the ones which were closer to the Kin than others - had told her anything about it. It was very much possible that even the Arcadian Sentinels didn't know about the White's life cycle. This was not an encouraging thought. _If I know more than they do, what are my chances of finding answers with them?_

"I don't know if it's common knowledge or not, bur it's true." she answered stiffly.

"Then you know more than most, I presume. There are a few old scriptures that speak about the Draic Kin, but most of them are vague on details and consist of admiration and praises to their wisdom and power and benevolence."

April snorted, "They need to make one exception there." She muttered.

Curiously enough, Euan narrowed his eyes and looked like he wanted to comment, and by the look of him something unpleasant, but thought better of it. Instead he leaned forward, leaning his elbows on his knees. "Can you tell me something? Why did the Red of the Draic Kin not want to come in contact with us?"

"I don't know that." April said truthfully. "He never really said anything about the Sentinels of Stark, I didn't know he was avoiding you guys. Since he was friends with father Raul... I never thought…" she glanced at the man in question, who readily came to her aid.

"He was as secretive as ever, it seems," he offered, "I've told you many times before, Euan, he kept everything to himself and there was no knowing of his motives. I knew him for years and you see how little I seem to have known, I had no idea he wasn't human. I guess it's in keeping with the little we know about the Kin - they've never been very forthcoming, now have they?"

"No, they have not", Vestrum Euan agreed, "but this one kept in touch with you, father, while straight up refusing to meet any other Sentinels. And in time of need instead of calling for us - people who knew most about the Balance and the two worlds, people who had already made it our life's mission to serve and protect the Balance - he asked this one girl to carry out such dangerous tasks." He turned to April again, "You may be an Artisan and a Shifter, but you have to agree that going against the Vanguard all alone requires more than that. Do you have special espionage skills? An influential family with a high status? Impressive financial background? Or any useful connections in high places?"

"I don't," she had to confess, "I'm just a lowlife." But that wasn't entirely true, as she had come to know very recently. She might be a simple country girl of no notable background to everyone in Stark, yet in Arcadia, and even here among these people, heads were bound to be turned and ears perked as soon as she mentioned her freshly discovered maternal heritage. Even high and mighty Jacob Macallen couldn't help but be slightly more respectful towards this little piece of her persona. "Except," she said pointedly, "apparently, I'm the daughter of the White of the Draic Kin, so... That may have something to do with it." Sure enough, the effect was just what she'd expected - at least on those that understood her speech, she made a mental note to retell the whole conversation to Adrian later in as much detail as possible, because quite frankly he looked like a lost child and she could just imagine how awkward and out of place she would feel in his shoes – Eyes widened, interests piqued like never before. She hadn't mentioned this even to Raul, not knowing how she would say it to anyone without sounding preposterous and making herself look like the worst of liars. Nevertheless this was one thing she wanted to inquire about more than anything else, and who wouldn't? So she sat and waited for a response to what must have been one of the boldest statements that had ever escaped her mouth. The two Sentinels stared, Vestrum Euan was clearly bewildered, which was saying something after the way he'd handled her equally bizarre story of her saving the two worlds almost singlehandedly.

"I'm sorry," he said, "you're a what?" he turned to father Raul, as if hoping the latter would clear up his confusion but the priest's face clearly said that he was in no way any better informed about the matter.

"She told me that herself," April said, sounding more subdued, "the White Dragon I mean, she told me I was her daughter."

More silence. When Euan finally broke it, his voice was more full of uncertainty than ever before. Of all the things he'd heard since they'd arrived this seemed to be the hardest pill for him to swallow. "And what's that supposed to mean?" he asked without even bothering to hide his distrust, "That you're a... Draic Kin?"

"No..." April answered slowly, sounding as uncertain as him, "I don't think so, I think I must be a human, mostly at least... I don't know what it means, but that's what she told me and I don't see why she would lie to me. Actually," she tried to look at him as pleadingly as her pride would allow, "that's one of the reasons I'm here. I was hoping you would help me figure it out."

It took still a few seconds, but then Vestrum Euan recovered admiringly from the shock of her revelation, he cleared his throat and straightened in his seat, assuming his initial stony facade. "This is the most extraordinary claim I've heard in my life," he said very carefully, "If what you're saying is true, it's understandable, of course, that you would come to us for help…" He bit down on his lip for a moment and April waited with baited breath. "A child of the White of the Draic Kin who is still a human?" he shook his head, "I've never heard of such a thing. How could this be, miss Ryan?"

 _This better not become the birds and the bees talk!_ April thought apprehensively. "You tell me," she said, "up until ten days ago or something I didn't know Arcadia existed, or the Draic Kin, or magic... I'm clearly not an expert here. That's why I thought, with your knowledge and all, maybe you could help me find out and understand what exactly I am!"

"I don't... know... I mean," the man sighed, "like I said, this is unheard of, at least, on this side of the divide. I don't think I have ever glimpsed a scripture or any sort of information that would mention the Draic Kin… _mingling_ with humans in such manner." He paused, deep in thought, "I suppose this matter will need to be explored, but that will take time and effort we can't spare just yet. There are matters at hand that need our full attention, after that..." his gaze wondered a bit before he returned it to April once more. "What can you tell us about your family, Ms. Ryan? Who are they?"

She had been expecting this question. "The only family I ever knew were my adoptive family," she relayed just a fraction faster than she usually talked, "Ryans. They are not in any way notable, just a family of four - not counting myself - living in Fillmore County, they have a small farm there. No Magicals, no people of high station, nothing. And I don't know anything about my biological parents. I mean... Save for what I've just told you about the White of the Kin."

"Have you ever noticed anything unusual about yourself then?" He asked curiously, "Anything out of the ordinary for a human?"

"Oh, you mean except for being able to open portals between worlds, having visions of what's happening somewhere else and doing occasional magic tricks?" She laughed nervously. "Not really, to be honest. And if I did anything truly unusual during the last week, I wouldn't be able to tell what was... Well, ordinary magic and what wasn't. Like I said, I need help to sort through all this."

There was a long pause. April kept her eyes on Vestrum Euan though she could tell father Raul was now staring at her in awe and amazement. He definitely believed every word of hers, she knew she'd had his full trust. However, the same couldn't be said about the Vestrum. She knew she couldn't blame him, every single time she'd imagine how this conversation might go, she would end up convinced that her words would be met with a whole lot of skepticism. Still, she was, she'd discovered, desperate enough for understanding and acceptance to feel offended.

Father Raul carefully broke the silence, "It would make sense," he started quietly, "for Cortez... I mean the Red of the Draic Kin to ask you for help then. He always told me you were the key to saving the Balance. He never elaborated, I never knew the reasoning behind his opinion, but... The Kin were instrumental in creating the Divide, if you were in any way related to them - unusual as it sounds - it would be expected of you to be instrumental to... Fixing it. It's logical, I think."

"Yeah, great." April mumbled, "But that doesn't answer anything. Just opens room for more speculation."

"In any case it will have to wait!" the Vestrum announced, straightening his back, his voice louder, clearer and full of decisiveness. "I intend to look into the matter but it will be later, when the situation has stabilized and we all have the luxury to go where ever we want, to talk to people in the know and visit our libraries. Do the research, so to speak. Until then I'm waiting for others to show up - those who can get here on their own two feet, at least. I daresay Hovercrafts won't be crossing the Pacific ocean any time soon. They don't seem capable of crossing a street these days. But there will be a meeting, whether or not we have full attendance. I hope both of you are present at that time," he looked from April to Raul, "your story will need to be retold and discussed in detail. They will have many questions no doubt, in fact, I have many questions too, and _many_ details I'd like to inquire. When they're here."

Raul was nodding, "Has anyone been in touch with you yet?" he asked.

"No," he answered grimly, "and they won't be. I threw away all means of communication I had in my possession. Including my brand new screen."

"Threw away?" The priest asked incredulously, April also stared in surprise as Euan nodded in confirmation.

"Yes, right out of the window too." he added, leaving both of them lost for words. Then, as if suddenly remembering something very important, he clapped his hand to his forehead. "Damn it!" He exclaimed, grimacing, "Have either of you brought any electronics? A mobile phone or anything of the sort!?"

At this sudden inquiry April exchanged a quizzical look with Raul. She was pretty sure he was thinking about the exact same thing she was: they had been asked that same strange question earlier that day.

"I'm afraid the police lynched my phone on our way here." Raul informed him, "Other than that we were completely tech free. And I suppose now you're going to tell us why this sudden fear of everyday items?"

"They tend to explode, or otherwise misbehave." the man responded, after seeing the looks on their faces he went on, "They do. That's where all the small explosions I mentioned earlier came from. Mostly it was phones, but also other stuff. Receiving a call is dangerous nowadays. I had to run around the whole day helping people put the fires out, or help give the first aid, though I am by far not a medic. It was everywhere."

"Nothing exploded in the cathedral." April said uncertainly. Vestrum Euan's brand new information would explain why the cops confiscated the old wristlet. On the other hand, it never seemed to give Raul any trouble, the priest had used (or tried to use) it on several occasions. There had been no connection, but other than that nothing notable had happened.

"Well, count your lucky stars." Euan answered, mildly surprised. "As far as I noticed it was the same with everyone in the neighborhood. Only there were bigger things happening that may have distracted people. We'll talk more about this too when others are here. I just hope they can get here safely. There are still marauders and robbers running about and police is as dangerous these days as criminals."

April grunted affirmative remembering the guns pointed at her and the nervousness of their wielders. She suddenly felt tired, and the sleep inducing effect of the candle now burning very low only made it worse.

"Are you hungry?" Euan asked her and Raul suddenly, getting up and setting the chair back in its place. "Can't offer you a feast, but I have some descent stuff in the storage."

That seemed to be the abrupt end of their exchange of information for the day. Both Raul and April expressed their gratitude for the upcoming meal, their modest dinner in the basement of the Cathedral seemed ages ago. Hours it took to walk here by foot had taken toll on their energies. When Euan retreated to the kitchen followed by Raul for a few quick words in private - April had a nasty suspicion she and her trustworthiness would be among hot topics of the day - Adrian moved to sit by her side on the sofa, at a considerable distance.

"I'm really happy to see you again," He repeated earnestly, his voice a little lower than usual. "I'm relieved you're safe. When this whole mess started I was scared that something would happen to you, I didn't know whether or not you were safe."

"That's really kind of you," April answered, feeling a bit hot in the face." I had a shelter, thankfully. Honestly, I'm surprised to see you here, how did you find this place?"

"Oh, I didn't, the new Guardian opened the doorway for me and it brought me here. He was the one that chose the direction for me. I would never even dream of looking for anyone or anything in Stark anymore. It's hard to believe that this is the same world I left back when I became the Guardian. I can't even understand anyone's speech, although I was assured you all speak English here."

"Right," said April sheepishly, "so English _is_ your native language after all. It probably sounds very different from how you spoke back then."

"I can't even recognize it!" He agreed with great enthusiasm, "Speaking of which, could you... Tell me in short what you three just talked about? It's frustrating to be the only person in the room who..."

"Of course!" April cut him off. While their host and Raul had been busy exchanging opinions in the kitchen, she told Adrian what she'd told them. Perhaps it was about how grateful Adrian felt towards April who, after all, had come to his aid in his darkest hour, his reactions were completely different from the Vestrum's and bore no sign of skepticism whatsoever. When she revealed her association with the White of the Draic Kin, he stared in wide eyed amazement.

"What does that make you?" He asked.

"That's what I want to know." April answered and for a while Adrian seemed lost in thought. He was brought our of his reveries by Raul returning with his arms lidden with loaves of stale bread, some dry fruit and quite a few cans. Euan followed closely with spoons, forks and glasses. The table was laid quickly.

"Having a crazy next door neighbor who awaits a zombie apocalypse every other week has its perks." Euan announced when he noticed April's surprise at the sheer amount of canned fish and soup piled in front of them. "If not for that, I would've needed to join the marauding marathon. I still might need to though, depending on how things go."

During the supper Raul raised a question of shelter for the night. It made April feel uneasy to think that she'd have to stay for the night in that unfamiliar place. If they had departed from the Cathedral early in the morning as they had originally planned, she would still have had time to walk all the way to Venice till the end of the day and... _Then what?_ She thought while munching on her food. She would have to face Fiona and Mickey and Charlie. They would bombard her with countless questions. She would have to come up with believable explanations because not even for a second did she believe that the truth would suffice. It was too much, she decided, with so much already on her plate to start wreaking her head over how to convince her friends that she was neither a problematic teen that had gotten involved with criminals and let those around her pay the price for her mistake, nor a lunatic lost in her own fantasies, nor a shameless liar. Perhaps it was just as well that she'd have to spend the night here. And necessity was undeniable. It was already very dark outside, the nighttime wonderings in Newport weren't extremely safe at the best of times and she'd be asking for trouble walking the streets she hardly knew for hours until she reached her destination. What state she would find it in was another matter needing serious consideration. April didn't like to think about it, but she couldn't ignore a very real possibility that the Border House could be no longer livable. _Yes,_ she decided in the end, _I'd better not poke my head out until tomorrow._ As for what she'd do tomorrow, she had been toying with a few ideas, there were a couple of things she intended to do, needed to do. It was only a matter of prioritizing them.

More words was exchanged between Raul and Euan during the meal, mostly commenting on the state of the world outside. Raul told him everything they had seen on their way, about his and April's voluntary imprisonment inside the Cathedral while something like a mini war raged outside its walls, the destruction of the Hope Street, police scouring the neighborhood and confiscating electronic devices to destroy them on the spot. April chatted a bit on the same topic with Adrian, just to spare him the awkwardness of being left out of everything again. From time to time Euan would throw a furtive look in her direction, something she tried her best to ignore, but made her feel uneasy. Her initial impression that he didn't trust her was only further strengthened by his wariness.

Their conversations continued throughout the whole supper and well after it. Nobody bothered to wash the dishes, since there was a water outage and what water they did have had to be rationed. April noted to herself, to her great annoyance, that this would be the fifth day her personal hygiene had been reduced to wet wipes. She had to suppress the urge to groan loudly, instead she tried to console herself with the fact that everyone was in the same boat in this department.

When Vestrum Euan judged it to be time to let his guests rest - they had no way to tell time except to judge by the sky that was now completely black from the lack of more prominent celestials and the rising smoke and smog concealing the blue hue it should've had, stars were still invisible, as always in this city - April took a skeptical look around the apartment. "There's a couch in the drawing room you could use, Ms. Ryan," he pointed vaguely to one of the shut doors. "It would be more hospitable of me to offer my guests a proper bed, but that's the only part in this mockery of an apartment you can get any privacy, and the couch is very comfortable I assure you."

"Yeah, that sounds good to me," April answered quickly, "thank you." She wasn't being modest by settling for it. In fact, she had to think a bit to remember the last time she'd slept in anything approaching a proper bed. Her mind wondered over the corner covered with a blanket in the church basement, a randomly selected spot in the Dark People's ship, the hellish hammocks of The White Dragon, grassy patches of the Northland's forest, the Spirit Dig... It had been a while, she supposed. At this rate it would soon become a standard for her to sprawl wherever she found a large enough space - just another unsettling thought to add to the pile.

At least the couch was as comfortable as promised, and she and Raul (the priest was invited to occupy the sofa in the living room) were given thin blankets just in case it got cooler at night. April didn't feel the temperature require it, especially since she was going to sleep with most of her clothes on, but she found herself wrapping it tightly around her shoulders a few hours after everyone had gone to sleep, contemplating all the events that had taken place that day and what she'd do next. Her situation seemed bleaker by every passing minute. She couldn't get rid of the mental image of the colonial's contract she'd signed to depart to the Morning Star. She was painfully aware of the fact that even if there was a way to annul it, someone like her didn't have an access to the means to do so. And failing to annul it meant that any sort of pleasant life was over for her in this world. She remembered Warren Hughes who had to hide in a dumpster to avoid being taken away and live as a street rat constantly hiding from cops and social services. But she had solved the problem for him, at least partly, could she solve it for herself if she tried really hard? _First things first!_ April said firmly to herself, _First I have to go home and see my friends, then_ _I have to find the two Draic Kin, or at least find out what happened to them and if the Red one is alive, get some answers from him and maybe even get help in taking care of the colonial problem... My quest isn't over yet._ She flinched from sudden noises from the kitchen - the empty pipes were growling, it sounded like the water problem was being worked on after all - and pulled the blanket up, half covering her face with it, eyes tightly shut. _It's not over yet..._ She repeated stubbornly hanging on to it as she drifted into uneasy sleep.


	4. Tale 1 - Chapter 03

**Author's note:** _This Chapter has been edited due to a previously made mistake on my part regarding the architecture of Newport. As of July the 14th it differs from the original version and reading it over is strongly advised._

* * *

 ** _Tale One - The Breach_**

 **CHAPTER 03**

The next morning April woke up to faint skylight pouring from the wide curtainless windows into the room, her own jumbled thoughts she had neatly arranged the night before, and a terribly distorted voice coming from the street, sounding through what must have been very old or very broken loudspeakers, as well as growling of an engine. At first it was hard to make out the words due to the poor sound quality and April herself being still groggy and disoriented after short restless sleep. As the voice gradually got closer, she rubbed her eyes and mentally shook herself, listening more intently. She finally made out some of the words repeated through the speakers over and over again and understood that the city officials were announcing a curfew for an undetermined period of time, advising citizens to avoid going outside unless it was necessary, and to stay away from all sorts of communication devices and vehicles. On a brighter note they said they were already fixing the problems with running water and were promising to restore it by the end of the day.

She heard a few neighbors grumble, their voices carried over faintly through nearby windows. From the guestroom there came sounds of heavy, slow steps, creaking of furniture. She slowly got up, folded her blanket neatly and put it on the couch. Seeing how it was the only thing she could do around the place she put on the former Colonial's pants, her shoes and trotted off to the kitchen. There she couldn't help turning the tap on, just in case. To her surprise and short lived excitement it gave a couple of sharp jolts and spat out a bit of water, but it died down almost right away. _Oh well_ , she thought, _at least it seems they really are working on it, that's something._

A sound of shuffling feet announced Vestrum Euan's arrival. He entered the room yawning and gave her a small nod and a short, formal morning's greeting. He habitually switched the light on, since the room was quite shady so early in the morning. Against both their expectations the effort was not lost. The bulb lit up cheerfully, making them jerk their heads in surprise. "Well, that's something." Euan said, "But I suppose there's no water yet?" Electricity alone did not cheer him up all that much.

"They announced it would all be restored soon," April relayed the news to him.

"Yes, I heard them," he grunted with no enthusiasm. "Shouldn't they have taken care of that first?" he muttered more quietly, glancing over to the sink filled with a pile of dirty dishes.

There was an awkward pause, or at least April felt so, standing there doing nothing and getting in his way while the Vestrum bustled around crafting something like breakfast.

"Thank you for letting me stay for the night", she said after a while.

"It's no trouble," he answered without looking at her. For some time it seemed he wasn't up for any chitchat, concentrated on picking usable dishes. Then he asked, glancing over his shoulder while he was searching the cupboard, "What are you planning to do today? Will you wait for the Minstrums with the rest of us, or do you have any pressing matters to attend to?"

"Oh... Are they arriving today?" she asked.

"I don't know, some of them might. I've already told you I haven't had the opportunity to contact them. I hope they are safe and can get here in one piece, but if they don't show up in due time, I'll have to search for them myself, or see if father Raul volunteers for the job. I daresay at a time like this leaving this place without at least one Sentinel present won't do, or we would both go to collect them."

April thought about it, there was no way of knowing whether or not these people were fine. Considering the situation, she could think of too many ways they could've been prevented to get here, each possible scenario more unpleasant than the last. In the meantime she had her own friends to check on, and the fate of the disappeared Draic Kin to investigate - hotter the trail the better. An almost crazy, dangerous idea concerning MTI had seeded itself into her brain since sometime past midnight - one that, if successfully executed, could give her a lot of precious information and a lot to contribute to the approaching gathering. She decided that waiting around would be a waste of time. She didn't feel like voicing _all_ her thoughts though.

"I have to find my friends," she told him, "at least one of them was severely injured the last time I saw her, I need to see if the rest of them are okay as well." Euan gave her a dubious look, "I'll get back as soon as I can!" she hastily added, then carefully, "Besides, I want to go and investigate that place, Grendel Avenue."

He stared at her, "You think you can get in there?"

"Why not?" April shrugged, surprising even herself by how confident her words sounded, as opposed to how she felt about it, "I've already done it once, I can do it again."

"I don't think it will be the same this time around," he argued, abandoning the meal preparations to face her sternly, as if she were a naughty child he was telling off. "All things considered the entire upper level is bound to be fortified, probably on a full lockdown while the rest of the world tries and gets itself together."

"Yeah, you're probably right," she sighed, unable to argue a very obvious and logical point, "still, I'm resourceful. I'll figure a way in. Someone has to do it and sooner the better. You do agree that at a time like this, as you put it, we need the Draic Kin more than ever… At least one of them?"

At these words the Vestrum gave her a peculiar searching look, "I understand urgency," he said almost cautiously, "but we have to prioritize our tasks. You venturing out there will mean taking a great risk. Furthermore, if you wait till we have our meeting, we can all decide together what the next action should be and make some kind of a plan."

"Which sounds great," April countered, "except, God knows when other Sentinels are going to get here, if they _can_ get here at all. And more we wait the less chance we have to find out what happened to the Red and the Green Dragons." He opened his mouth, intending to argue again, but she wouldn't have it anymore, "I've already made my decision." She said, impervious to his disapproval, her chin set stubbornly, "I'm going whether you agree or not. I don't need permission, I just wanted to wait until you were all awake, to tell you where I was going."

It looked like the news displeased him a great deal, which didn't feel very unexpected. She didn't think anyone would approve her running around the hazardous city and poking her nose in dangerous matters, not when the best course of action seemed to be laying low and waiting for the events to unfold before them, and to act after there was some stability back in the world. In a hindsight she saw sense in that strategy and not terribly long ago she would've agreed wholeheartedly to that kind of a plan. But, whether it was her recent experiences affecting her judgment, or that she had grown overconfident, or maybe even overly desperate, she longed to throw herself into action right away. The chaos that had broken out seemed like the perfectly muddled water to catch fish in.

Her determination must have been easily readable on her face, since it brought the end of their short argument. Euan pursed his lips and turned back to his business, looking very troubled. "I can't stop you, of course," he said, lowering his voice again, putting a few cans on a small table with extra care, as if trying not to slam them loudly, "I still think it's a bad idea." after a few seconds he added with a very purposely neutral tone, "If you somehow get out of there alive, be mindful that you're not followed to this place. The last thing we need is being stormed by armed goons."

April was sure she'd gone red in the face, though she remained silent. _Well,_ she thought bitterly, _that's as much faith as I can ask of him. Or as much help, for that matter._

Soon they were joined by the rest of their little team, which proved very difficult by the general lack of space in the tiny kitchen. Four grown people were too much for it. They crammed awkwardly until Euan let out a frustrated groan and asked them all to go back to the living room. "Whoever approved this project needed to be shot." He complained while they single filed through the narrow corridor. April tagged along behind them, not feeling particularly hungry and the anticipation of what she had planned for the day seeping in already, the usual restlessness that accompanied her before starting on improbable missions like this, was slowly building up again. Then, a sudden thought gripped her.

When the three men were seated, she remained standing in the doorway. "May I borrow the Talisman of the Balance?" She asked Euan loudly enough to cut through the conversation he was having with Raul. He looked mildly surprised.

"Why?" He asked.

"Why do you think?" She shifted her weight to one foot and put her hand over her hip, a habitual bossy manner she assumed when chiding someone, or preparing to face being chided herself. "I'll need anything I can use out there. It has already saved me more than once after all. It's not like you can arm me or anything and I don't want to go on a dangerous mission unprepared, do I?"

Euan hesitated, and clearly took advantage of an interjection from Raul, who was looking confused from one to the other. "What dangerous mission?" the priest asked her.

"I'm gonna try to find out what happened to Cortez." she replied, deciding the best approach would be to word it in a way he'd have an easier time accepting her decision. It didn't make much of a difference.

"How?" he asked, eyes wide in alarm.

She sighed, "Revisit the crime scene, of course."

"You're going to Grendel Avenue again?" he admonished, "April, that's dangerous, especially now! With all this chaos there will be upgraded security, they will be keeping their eye out for any possible danger and anything even remotely suspicious will draw attention!"

"When are they going to be relaxed about a _security breach_?" April asked, trying to sound as worry free as possible. "This chaos might even provide enough confusion and distraction to make it easier for me to get inside! I know the risks, father. I also know that it has to be done, soon. And, after all, Cortez trusted me with saving the worlds, I think I can be trusted with a little investigation for his benefit… for _our_ benefit."

Raul got to his feet. "You mustn't go alone." He insisted, knowing she wouldn't back down and determined to follow her through hell, no doubt. But his good intentions aside, he was a middle aged man with hardly any physical exercise to help him along. She didn't fancy having to leave him behind if the worst happened and she had to depend on her agility and stamina, fleeing for dear life.

"Yes, I must." She said, more stern than she had ever sounded, even when telling Owen off. "I'm sorry to say this, father, but you won't be able to catch up with me." Raul hung his head somewhat. "Not that I don't appreciate your offer!" she added hastily, trying to keep things with him as friendly as she could.

"No, I understand." he answered, "And you could Shift out of harm's way if it came to that". He gave her a hopeful look and April bit back the initial, stupidly honest answer that she just might not manage to do that because the place seemed to have some barriers to prevent Shifting the last she'd been there. But there was hope that the technology behind it, which, to April's understanding involved magic, would be out of order just like so much else.

"Yeah, there's that too." she said instead with a careless air and turned to Euan again, "So may I have the Talisman or not? I'm kinda in a hurry."

Euan, who hadn't moved the whole time, shook his head slightly, his face now set in that trademark stony expression she was starting to hate with passion. "I don't think that's advisable." He said, "You're going straight to the lion's den. You have the right to, if you want. But, as a Vestrum, I can't allow you to take this unique, priceless, powerful object and conveniently deliver it right to the Vanguard's doorstep, placing it in the hands of our worst enemies."

April felt her anger bubbling up in her throat. This man, this _useless_ person, who so far had provided her _no_ substantial answers, _no_ solutions to her problems and had taken away one object, one token she possessed that could prove she'd played a role in _anything_ , was now denying to even _lend_ it to her to help her out in a dire need, while outright stating his belief in her failure should she try and carry out her plan. She was sure her fury showed on her face, she could feel her cheeks burning, her fists clenched and she grit her teeth to prevent herself saying things she might regret later. Her display of rage wasn't going to change anything and she couldn't take the medallion back by force.

"Fine!" She cut it short with her voice raised noticeably louder (though not quite shouting) than she had allowed herself in a long time. "I'm not very hungry, so if you don't mind, I'll be on my way." And with that she turned to the drawing room, grabbed the satchel she had left there and headed to the door. The door seemed to be the only one that _did_ mind, considering the trouble she had opening it. In the meantime the rest of the company didn't do or say anything to stop her departure, or at least calm her down. The only person who even said anything was Adrian, asking what had just happened. She struggled with the key until she realized that the door had a small bar she needed to pull instead. Now angry at herself as well as the Vestrum, she marched out and came close to slamming the door behind her, only stopping in the last second and taking a deep breath. _It's just the nerves._ she told herself, _Throwing tantrums won't solve my problems._ So she headed down the stairs, determined to stretch her legs with a bit of a morning walk and taking a few gulps of relatively fresh air - fresh by Newport's standards.

The yard was silent and peaceful. April hadn't given much thought to the time of the day, but it seemed _very_ early. Soft light of early dawn fell on gray asphalt. She smelled smoke, yet the air felt almost pleasant in spite of this. _Must be because I was stuck in that tiny room with all the doors and windows shut._ She thought absently. Stepping outside was a relief, and so was being left completely to her own devices for a time – just what she needed while mentally going over her plan for the day.

Returning to the border House had to be her top priority. More than anything else she wanted to know about Emma's current state. April summoned the memory of the strange portal, which came to her aid so unexpectedly during the chase at the Bridges of Venice, the mysterious old woman who had assured her that Emma had survived and would be fine. All things considered, the old lady seemed to belong to the (very short) Trustworthy People list. But being told by someone wasn't the same. She needed to see her best friend, talk to her – if her condition allowed – and explain the reason she'd suffered… and let her do what she would with that information.

April exited the narrow backyard and went out into the empty street, contemplating the plan, making sure she wasn't missing any important details. The form of transportation had to be Shifting to Arcadia and back, this was something she had decided days ago. She had a vague idea how to get to the Hope Street, since she remembered some of the walk from the day before, but hardly knew which general direction she should head from there to find Venice. As for getting to Grendel avenue – no clue of its whereabouts. She was only aware of the subway station she needed to take to get to the Interlevel Elevator. Other than that she'd be lost looking for it. But more she thought about it more impatient she got. _Maybe I should rearrange the schedule and go to Grendel Avenue first?_ She asked herself. It seemed reasonable, she herself had argued with Stark's Vestrum about the urgency of finding the Draic Kin trail. Having started on her way so early also made her realize that it was better to try and infiltrate the enemy territory when people were bound to be sleepier as opposed to later in the day when even the laziest and the most spoiled rich upper level citizen could be alert. She stopped and looked around, scratching the back of her neck. "I didn't think this through…" She muttered to herself.

Nobody seemed to be out in the street, the whole neighborhood was empty and silent. But April well knew that while there might not be anyone out in the open, small alleys and nooks and corners of the city were a very different case and she could easily be watched from any number of windows. Causing a scene – and a very magical one at that – was the last thing she wanted to do. When she looked around to find the closest well secluded place from which to depart to the other world, she saw a familiar face. Adrian was running towards her. She waited for him, wondering if he had been sent by Vestrum Euan to stop her, starting to get angry beforehand.

"Thank God I've caught up with you!" He panted coming to a stop in front of her.

"What's going on?" April asked uncertainly.

"Well," He sucked in a deep breath, "when you left, I asked the Vestrum where you had gone and what you'd talked about. He told me and…"

"You're not gonna try and convince me not to go, are you?" She cut him off, annoyed.

Adrian took a moment to appraise her, until slowly replying, "I would have, if I'd thought it a bad idea, but I'd be better spending my breath trying to convince you not to go _alone_. I'll go with you!"

"No," April argued, "you won't. I'm going to Shift."

This seemed to surprise Adrian greatly, "Shift? I thought you were going to a place in this city…"

"I am," she explained impatiently, "but it's too far, so I'll Shift to Arcadia and then open a portal to wherever I need to in Newport. Do you understand now?" She almost pleaded, "You can't follow me, you don't know the place I want to Shift to."

He couldn't possibly argue with this, so April expected him to wish her luck and back away, but it didn't happen. Instead he tilted his head a little and asked in a very casual tone, "This place, it's the one where the leaders of the Vanguard reside, correct?"

"Or did, at any rate. Yeah." She confirmed before inquiring, with growing unease, "Why?"

"I know that place, I've been there." He said simply. "They brought me to their leader and held me captive for days until sending me to that… metal vessel in the sky."

"Yeah, but I can't Shift to your prison cell or anything! We'd have to Shift to two different places and waste time looking for each other!" She was starting to get very irritated, but before her temper could blaze up as it had acquired a habit to do at the weakest prompts lately, the Twelfth Guardian splashed it with a bucket of icy water.

"I tried to Shift to Arcadia many times when I was there." He declared, "They have means to prevent us using our powers. I cannot say if it still works properly, or if it's failed like so many other pieces of technology you've got in Stark now, but if they do work, you won't be able to get in that way. What will you do if you discover Shifting inside that place is still impossible?" Adrian asked.

April cursed mentally. Of course! She had almost forgotten that, since he was a Shifter too, naturally, he would've tried to get away from danger at some point during his imprisonment, meaning he would know _her_ limits in that place. But she wasn't going to give up so easily. "There are other ways," she informed him, "first of all, I don't have to Shift inside that building, just the district."

Adrian shook his head, "No, I _mean_ the district. I suppose that's what it was, enormous towers high up in the sky, with vast bridges and hanging streets up in the air?"

She stared at him in disbelief and horror. "You mean… you couldn't Shift from _anywhere_ on the Upper Level?"

"Just so." He confirmed.

This was bad news. April was caught reassessing her plan, now with the notion that not only did she have to break into the MTI headquarters, but the Upper Level of the city as well, a risky move on its own, but nothing compared to the _flight_ she would have to take to Grendel avenue by a shuttle. She had not been counting on such a turn of events and hadn't given a moment's thought to the logistics of such process. Her hand automatically moved to the satchel to feel the items inside it. She still had a few vials from Roper Klacks' castle, saved by the grace of the scanner's confusion at having to analyze magical substances, when she was checked going aboard the spaceship. She had been mentally going over possible problems she could solve with them when getting in and out of MTI. But now she had to come up with a whole new plan and she'd very probably have to use them up for that one alone. But she _was_ getting a little ahead of herself, it wasn't all hopeless yet.

"I'm counting on the barriers having broken down though", she said, "almost everything else is. If that thing involved magic, Gordon should've disabled it by now. Besides, I still have a few items from Arcadia I can use to sneak in. This isn't any worse than everything I did during that week of restoring the Balance. I'll find the way." And she tried very hard to convince herself that she meant it.

"Ah, I'm not arguing with that!" Adrian announced, now annoyingly triumphant, "But if the barrier has been restored, on the off chance that it still works, it will complicate matters, not only in getting inside the place, but afterwards too. You won't be able to Shift out of there in case of trouble. You could use assistance and I want to help. We can walk to the place, can't we?"

Here April saw another way out of it. "No, that would take hours," she retorted, "if I can't Shift directly to the Grendel Avenue, I can still Shift as close as possible, right there at the entrance."

"Is the entrance that place just beneath an enormous tower, from which a small metal cabin whisks you up?" he asked.

"Yes…" She said slowly, taken aback by the fact that he knew the place.

"So can I!" he answered happily, eyes gleaming.

"Excuse me?"

"I can Shift to that place too! That's where I landed when I got out of the Realm and was wondering around, before guards in strange armor snatched me and took me up there! I can Shift to Arcadia and then to that entrance just as well as you can. So, if you fail to Shift directly to… Grendel… Avenue – that's its name, right? – just return here and tell me, then we can both Shift to the entrance."

April couldn't help but stare at the man speechless. While she'd considered him a positive person, their first meeting had left her with the impression that he was meek, weak willed, and someone who wouldn't get mixed up with anything dangerous unless they absolutely had to – a trait she had always attributed to herself, if she was completely honest. Yet here he was, ready to hop into the tangled mess she was resigned to solve without hesitation. Of all the people she'd had to ask for help, hardly anyone knew better than him the sort of people she was up against, the evidence of it was all over his body, even showing through the low growth of dark hair on his head. He still bore the telltale signs of the treatment he'd received in hands of the MTI goons in a form of various cuts and bruises – none placed randomly by accident, but in strategic places for their respective procedures, designed to force the information out of him, information he had never possessed. If April had to guess, she would've guessed and declared with absolute certainty that Adrian would never have agreed to willingly start messing with those people. Despite this, he stood there expectantly, volunteering to help more insistently than anyone had done for her so far. She didn't know what to make of it. It was unsettling.

"You know what you're getting yourself into." She said slowly and quietly, it was not as much of a question as a statement.

"Certainly!" he said, anticipation in his eyes growing.

"You know we can get caught and what might… No, what _will_ follow." She continued.

"Yes." He answered, now grinning widely.

"And you're suicidal." She said without changing her tone or expression. It halted Adrian's answer quite a bit, he visibly struggled trying to decide whether or not to take it as a joke, until deciding on a careful smile and a "No, I'm not." April arched one eyebrow, not accepting it so easily. "I'm not," he repeated, "not any more than you are. I just want to help. Besides, I haven't forgotten that I owe you. _A lot_!"

"Is that what this is all about?!" She exclaimed, promptly bringing her voice down, "Look, you don't owe me anything."

"Of course I do!" he argued, incredulous that he even had to, "If you hadn't released me from my imprisonment…"

"I didn't do that for _you!_ It was to… To save the two worlds… The Balance." There was some unexpected hesitation there. The sort April didn't quite understand herself, nor did she like it. It felt wrong to say it for some reason, to take credit for everything she'd done. It was almost as if it left a bad taste in her mouth.

"I know," he said with a careless air, "but the worlds include me, right?"

 _Smartass,_ she thought irritably. "Yeah, and it includes me," she said, lowering her voice even more, "you could say, I did it for myself." Ah, there it was, the cause of her discomfort. The moment she said it the voice of Bak-Baar's dark vision echoed through her mind again, _"You're doing it for yourself, April!"_ it mocked her once more, as if she was still in that cave. April wanted to slap herself for repeating those hateful words. She sighed very heavily.

"That doesn't diminish your deeds, you know." Adrian said, looking rather thoughtful, choosing his words carefully. She wondered if he somehow guessed her train of thought, as unlikely as that was. "It was still you," he went on, "who broke me out of there, it's still you I owe my thanks to."

"You've already thanked me. You don't owe me anything anymore, consider yourself free."

He grinned again, "Good! A free man can decide for himself whom to help, can't he?!"

April let out a frustrated groan. _Even Owen was never this clingy._ "Listen," she started, in the last valiant attempt to talk him out of it, keeping her voice calm and serious, "Just a few days ago they shot my friend, only because she was my friend and she was there. I still can't forgive myself that I got her in such trouble and I'm trying to prevent such things from happening in the future, can you understand that?"

Adrian's face had turned somber, but far from yielding. "I understand. You too must understand that you're not the only one involved in the matters of the Balance. I'm not just some random person tagging along on your personal quest. I'm offering you to team up."

His voice held no anger, but she was taken aback, not only by him unexpectedly bringing it up, but also the way he chose to word his position and certain intensity that appeared in his eyes when he said it, the way he had straightened his back and subtly brought his chin up, reminding her that there was someone important standing in front of her – a man that, for a very long time was essentially a God. That was it, she knew she'd lost the case. Who was she to tell the twelfth Guardian of the Balance to stay away from the matters of the two worlds or the Draic Kin? She looked up at him, grim and resigned. "We'd better go somewhere nobody can see." she said walking forward and Adrian trotting after her. "I'll Shift to Marcuria for the start. Don't wait for me for too long, if I'm not back in twenty minutes at most, just go. If it doesn't work, I'll come back here and then we might have a _long_ discussion, it's gonna be a big change in my plans, you know…"

"Alright!" He said, perfectly cheerful now that he got his way. His attitude was so boyish, April found herself unable to be properly angry with him.

"Over here!", she stopped in front of a half-destroyed storefront. Its large glass doors had been smashed. Beyond it she could see sizable bookshelves with some of the merchandize surprisingly still on them. Not all the neighbors had found a need to make a bonfire yet, it seemed. The two entered it with great care, avoiding shards of glass scattered on the floor. April scanned the surroundings to see if they had company. There was a backdoor that revealed a dark corridor beyond and a few compartments, a storage room and offices, but nobody seemed to be about. She couldn't help opening all the doors and calling for people. Only once she had quelled all the suspicions did she turn back and looked around. Some shelves obscured the view of the street completely, it was the perfect place. "I think this spot will do." She told Adrian, who nodded and stepped back a bit to give her some space for the portal. April concentrated. The last time she'd Shifted, she'd chosen the Journeyman Inn as her destination. It seemed safe enough, or as safe as any place considering Arcadia's own version of Armageddon that had been happening. The Inn had already proven useful too, providing her with the little she had needed. Not to mention, at this point it had turned into a very familiar place, one she could very easily fix her mind on - the perfect haven for a rookie Shifter like her. She closed her eyes and recalled it, reached out to it, called for it. Something in her mind clicked and she knew she'd done it, the Shift blossomed in thin air, radiant and inviting. Barely detectable forces washed over her subconsciousness like a cool breeze when she stepped towards it.

"Good luck!" Adrian called after her.

April knew this path well enough already, she pushed her way through with ease, almost dancing along familiar currents. Dreams surrounded her and guided her, and she guided them in return, directed them to form the passage. In a few seconds she had crossed the Divide in time and space and was on the other side, standing on the dusty wooden floor of the Inn's main hall.

A quick look around the room showed that it was still empty and silent. Soft light beams entered from the windows and birdsong could be heard from outside. She suddenly remembered that this place had an old fashioned but fully functional bathroom on the next floor that didn't rely on high-end automated tech or electricity to be usable. Of course, there was Adrian, who would be waiting for her return in case she found the anti-Shift barriers intact, but she still had twenty minutes in reserve. Opening a Shift didn't require much time, after all. Deciding to make up for a bit of what she'd been missing for the past few days April headed to the entryway leading in the backroom and the stairs to the upper floors. When she was in the backroom, however, a loud bang from the hallway made her jump violently and her heart nearly jumped out of her chest. She whirled around to find the source of it and the sound came again from the front door, someone was trying to break their way in. To her horror she heard that whoever or whatever they were, there were definitely a few of them. _Tyrens?_ She backed away. Now, she had to Shift _now_. In a state of panic, she scrambled through her memories of Grendel Avenue. Another bang. Of all the places she had seen there McAllen's office was the only one she was sure would be empty. She shut her eyes and pictured it. Bang! Sound of splintered wood, triumphant exclamations in an unfamiliar language, cold unresponsive wall beyond Arcadian reality. _Shit!_ She backed away towards the stairs, sneaking up slowly, trying harder. It felt like switching the lights on when there was no electricity. _Not working!_ The door must have been removed completely already, heavy footsteps came from the main hall. Orders were given in the same unfamiliar language. _They'll search the storage and the basement first!_ She thought desperately, almost crawling higher up the wooden steps, hoping against hope she wouldn't make them creak loud enough for the uninvited guests to hear. _Some other place!_ She told herself. _Somewhere else! The reception! The lab! The MTI building entrance hall! Metro Mall!_ No. No. No. No. The Vanguard had indeed blocked Grendel avenue, as well as the Upper Level in its entirety for Shifters and it was still blocked after everything that came to pass. How could this even be? Why would they do it? She kept distancing herself from the threat downstairs, and her Shifting spot - from her real destination. She mentally poked and prodded at every single place she remembered on the upper level while sounds of them rummaging through Benrime's supplies reached her. Frustration gripped her as she realized that indeed all of the Upper level was closed to her.

She had gone up all the way to the next floor and was at the end of the corridor, out of desirable options to Shift to, as well as a place to run to when a Tyren's head poked in. She'd never seen them up close, only as a distant mass of an invasive army some days ago. Now that she finally got the opportunity, she realized she hadn't been missing much. This particular specimen looked like a crossbreed of an Orc from popular classic Fantasy and a Dobermann. It stood still only for a second after seeing her, probably out of surprise rather than anything else, then bared its fangs and charged. April saw the raised harpoon almost in slow motion, the creature's eyes were lit with wild ferocity. A true predator. A little earlier she would've cowered and frozen on the spot. But this was at least the fourth time she had a beast advancing at her and she found now that the experiences of the past had taught her more than she had realized. Her instincts kicked in, not to try and run or hide from her assailant, but to calmly do what she knew she could. _The bookstore_. The Tyren leaped. The mental blink. And the next moment the floor had turned into a pool of swirling light and she had submerged into the well of dreams, quickly closing the entrance only a split second before her pursuer could fall after her.

It had been too quick. It took a few seconds of elation and waiting in vain for the dream currents to take hold of her, before she came to a ground shattering realization: it wasn't just the entrance she'd closed, but _the exit_ as well. She stood dumbstruck at what she had done, not quite sure whether to start being very afraid of being potentially stuck between worlds, maybe even for a few hundred years like Westhouse had the misfortune to be, or give in to the fascination with what she had slowly started noticing all around her.

The structure of her former passage was changing. April had always felt it to be one whole. Something like an underground tunnel with a wind flow that directed her - with her own mental prompting - to where ever she wanted to relocate herself. Now she witnessed something very different. The passage started dismantling itself slowly, minuscule pieces detached themselves seeping away gently, but they didn't leave empty space behind. There was a rush as others started filling in. It was still a current, only there was a new kind of flow to the movement. Instead of the linearity characteristic during Shifting, there was irregularity. The substance of Dreams went in almost all directions and soon it became turbulent and overwhelming. The tunnel slowly transformed into a more bubble like construct, swirling around her. Inexplicably, April felt chills all over her body, vague perception of emotions, memories of voices and images was being uncovered in the deepest layers of her own subconscious, as if responding to some new stimulation.

It was very tempting to experiment, to wait for an indefinite amount of time and see what happened, to reach out and touch those dreams with her mind. But there was caution, a very clear notion that these were forces to reckon with, not toys to entertain herself with. The dreams drew ever closer, at a few points she could've sworn she heard ghostly whispers, which disappeared the moment she tried to concentrate and listen to them. A song, a distant song carried from distant times and realms, ancient yet fresh, impossible to grasp, a vocal version of seeing nonexistent things from the corner of one's eye. She shook herself mentally. She had to remind herself where she was supposed to be instead of standing there and admiring the "view". _I have to go back._ _I need to reopen the Shift and return. If I can…_ She was well aware that she was not opening a Shift in what could be called normal conditions and there was an increased risk of failure.

April concentrated, and found she didn't need to try quite as hard. At the slightest prodding there was an immediate response. The aetherial substance surrounding her rushed past her and started flowing in a form of the familiar passage, ending with a proper vertical whirlpool. She exhaled slowly, relieved at her success. A second later she emerged among the bookshelves and stood facing a thoroughly distressed Adrian.

"Finally!" He exclaimed, eyes wide and his face much paler than usual, "What happened?!"

April blinked at him, surprised. "Did I take too long?!" She asked hesitantly, "You shouldn't have waited for me, I told you…"

Adrian waved it off, "No, the first portal opened soon, but then it closed and you were nowhere to be seen! I thought… I thought that something might have happened to you and you couldn't cross, maybe you were gravely injured or something like that! I was just about to Shift to Marcuria myself and start looking for you!"

"Right, sorry about that." April rubbed her temples. "There were a few incidents on the way." And she told him everything that had happened since she had Shifted to the inn and the nontraditional way she Shifted back.

"You stopped in between? In the Middle of the Dreaming?" Adrian was completely bewildered, amazed, "What was it like?!"

"Weird." This was the best description April could come up with.

"I never knew one could do that." He said, furrowing his brow in contemplation. "So you're saying a Shift can be opened one sided? From there?"

"Looks like it." she confirmed. "In fact, it was even easier to do than it usually is."

He looked hesitant and somewhat shamefaced. "It is advised against, to be honest," he told her. "When they trained me, I was given strict warnings not to mess with the Dreaming. But…" he shook his head. "It would be so fascinating to explore it!"

"What did they say might happen?" April wondered.

"Well, one can't be sure, of course, but I'd imagine if you accidentally upset the powers that tie universes together and maintain the Balance of All, it could do damage."

"You have a point there." She admitted and fell silent. "Anyways", she went on, bitterness slowly building up in her voice, "It looks like we're gonna follow the plan B, which I don't have yet."

Adrian, to his credit, didn't interrupt her. He merely walked to the nearest wall and leaned onto it, waiting for her to contemplate in peace. The first thing she thought of was to Shift directly inside the elevator that connected the three levels of Newport. The suggestion was discarded after Adrian revealed that a Shift would not be moving even if the place it was aimed at - was. If the elevator was being used or was about to be called when they opened a portal inside the car… They were already taking too many risks as it was. "There will be at least one security guard down there." She thought aloud. "We will need to distract him, or them, if there are more." Her companion listened in silence. "If the elevator doesn't work… Though if there's electricity anywhere in the city, it has got to be there, they would restore everything on the Upper Level first. If it works, we'll need to sneak in the elevator after distracting the security and go up, it could be as easy as that."

"How are you going to distract them?" He asked.

"I have a few potions," she answered vaguely.

"Potions?" Adrian asked blankly, "You mean, magical potions?"

"Yes, I have some left from my… recent adventure."

"Are you sure they're going to work, considering the circumstances?" he asked tentatively.

April sighed, "I'm not sure of anything anymore." She scratched the back of her head, "But I think there's a fair chance, yeah. The barriers still work after all." From the look he gave her, Adrian _clearly_ had reservations, but she merely stared back. "You don't have to come with me, if you don't want to." She reminded him, but he shook his head quickly, which April took as his insistence on going with her anyway. "Well then," she straightened her back, "it's time to Shift."

"Right." He stood ready as well. "Have you got a safe place to Shift to?" He asked.

"There's one place I know that should be safe from the Tyrens." She said. "The Isle of Alais. I was told they hate water and pretty much never travel by it."

"Right." Adrian thought for a few seconds. "I was going to Shift to the Temple of the Sentinels."

"That's dangerous." She argued immediately. "They would probably break in and rob it or something."

"Not necessarily." He said thoughtfully, although he seemed to be contemplating this option too, "Even savages may have some consideration for other people's most sacred monuments. Out of their own superstitious nature if nothing else." April arched her brows skeptically at this. She thought he might be right in general, but she couldn't see the Tyrens - the beasts she'd seen, especially when winded and directed by the Vanguard, being reverent towards the temple. Adrian must have guessed what she'd been thinking. "Besides, the Sentinels would never leave it unprotected." He added, "Whatever magic was at their disposal, they would use it."

"I get that, but that doesn't mean the Tyrens couldn't break through the defenses, does it?"

"The chance is slimmer than you think." Adrian said, "There was a whole system of underground passages and protected vaults in the temple. You could say the place is three times as big below the ground as it is above it. The entrance is well sealed and concealed, even if the Tyrens were to barge in, they would be wondering around, never suspecting its existence." He took in April's surprised face, "I daresay _you_ haven't seen it either." She shook her head. "Anyway," he went on, "I have no hope that any place I've seen in Arcadia has remained recognizable, I don't know what I might get myself into if I Shift anywhere else."

He seemed very much set on his decision and in the end April gave up arguing. She only asked if he preferred for her to Shift to the same place, but he refused it, saying it would be an unnecessary risk on her part. She itched to remind him that taking an unnecessary risk by going with her was what he was doing, but refrained knowing she'd be wasting her time anyway. Besides, after her initial reluctance to accept his offer, she'd started feeling that she should be a bit more grateful to even _have_ anyone volunteering to help her in such a risky affair.

The next thing they needed to agree on was Shifting back to Stark at the same place. April had serious misgivings about it, since she didn't quite trust Adrian to remember the surroundings well enough to Shift. He must have been so confused back then, so shocked by the insaneness of the sights that greeted him, he couldn't have taken it in all that well. But he insisted he remembered it and could Shift to the right place. After that they debated over what the "right place" was supposed to be exactly. April was not willing to risk Shifting in plain sight and it took additional persuasion on his part until she was somewhat hopeful that he could pick an unremarkable dark corner to Shift to. "If you run into anyone, especially someone with a gun, just raise your hands and tell them you're unarmed." She repeated at least a dozen times before she was confident enough that he'd do just that. Finally there was only one thing left to do.

Their Shifts opened side by side, just a Foot apart. For a second, before stepping into her own, April directed her attention to Adrian's Shift. There was a different feel to that one. There were similarities, but it came with the sense of foreignness, it felt strange and forbidding. Then he went in, only pausing for a moment to look at her and make sure that she was stepping into her portal too.

The beach was the most pleasant sight she'd seen in days. It was the exact same spot she had first emerged from the water after the underwater trip. It was familiar, safe, calm and serene, waves whispered gently and the air was so fresh and transparent. Newport often made one forget what the air was supposed to be like. The warm Sun was shimmering on the water and the whole place was inviting, even more so when facing the prospect of infiltrating a hostile, dangerous place with her and her companion's lives on the line. She threw a yearning look at the sea, aching to submerge into it and wash off all the dirt and sweat and all her worries she'd been carrying for days. But the second Shift opened before she would give in to temptation, by her resolve to sort out her priorities well and the knowledge that Adrian would be waiting for her, as well as how easily he could've gotten into any silly trouble when left in the middle of Newport all by himself. Before leaving she swore to herself to make Alais her returning spot when she was done with her mission and take full advantage of the comforts it provided, before taking the trip back to her bleak world.

April emerged from the Shift slowly, and instantly thanked herself for it, since she realized her portal had opened very close to a wall and she would have walked into it facefirst had she been faster. _Still need to work on it,_ she told herself. Though to be fair, it was a place she barely knew and had never inspected up close. The glowing whirlpool behind her vanished with a swish. She looked around. It was a small denture in a building of some sorts, which, predictably, the locals had turned into a garbage deposit point. It was dark, it stank and the asphalt was littered with the most "pleasant" things: used condoms, empty plastic bottles, wipes covered with God knew what substances and many empty card boxes that, to her recognition, had served as packaging for Amathin distribution. _Just my luck to land in a place like this,_ April thought grudgingly as she tiptoed out of the concealed corner. It was so narrow, it was a miracle her aim hadn't failed her. There was at least that encouraging thought she came out with.

She was in the Metro circle alright. The outside looked almost as empty of civilians as the neighborhood she had just left. She quickly noticed a small group of people on the far end of the street, on the other side, huddled together, but just at the moment they seemed preoccupied with other things and looked like they were in the middle of an agitated conversation, or an argument. A few were twirling what might have been knives or other sharp, shiny objects designated for similar purposes. She decided she didn't want to wait around for them to notice her. But looking around she couldn't spot Adrian. This did _not_ bode well. _What if he got lost and Shifted somewhere completely different?_ she thought worriedly and moved along the sidewalk towards the stairs that would bring her down past the subway station, her shoulders hunched a bit, stepping carefully, trying not to make a sound. Calling his name was an option, of course, but it would draw attention, and she couldn't risk that.

The humongous buildings towered before her and they had not come out of the battle with the Chaos unscathed. Huge holes in them, burnt marks and sometimes missing roofs spoke of their trials. On the other hand, the fact that the rest of them were still standing strong and were even livable, gave praise to the people who had planned and built them, giving them such endurance. _Someone actually cared for quality control, imagine that._ The whole pavement was littered with rubble, of course, but she had come to expect that. What she hadn't dared to expect were lights coming out of a few windows – too bright and steady to be feeble candle lights, or flashlights. Even some neon signs flickered in the distance. The city looked functional, and it was a reassuring sign. It meant the elevator would work!

The forbidden entrance to the higher levels of the city was right ahead – the massive concrete tower adorned metal constructions. April felt more uneasy with every step she took towards it. The plan seemed a lot more sound and plausible when it was just in her head. She rummaged in her satchel nervously, grasping the vials, without taking eyes off her target. The entrance was a lot more heavily guarded now than the last time she'd approached it. Perhaps the excess of guards was responsible for relative peacefulness of the usually sinister and messy place. They stood with their guns at ready, but their body language was relaxed. They clearly had been standing like this for a long time and were not actually expecting trouble anymore, they moved deliberately from spot to spot. Just like the police troops she'd met the previous day, they were out of their suits. April gulped, the sight of their guns as well as facing the imposing building in reality once more gave her chills. Being on the location seemed to make the scale of her trespassing and the consequences of failure more real than when she was building the plans. What she was about to do was one of the most dangerous, even improbable acts she had ever credited herself with, which, given the events of the past week or so was saying a lot. Her state of mind could've been affected by the fact that she had always thought of Arcadia as a place of fairy tales, a place where the heroine was protected by the laws of plot and the grace of destiny, which had a mission for her that needed to be fulfilled. Here, in front of the Oh So Forbidden place, facing the armed security ready to shoot her down without a moment's hesitation, she felt stripped of her protection and left with the reality she had lived before, only an even darker version of it. Anything could go as horribly wrong for her as it was possible at any given time and she would suffer all the consequences just like anyone else.

April took a deep breath and released a vial she had been gripping too hard. She stopped at the foot of the stairs that descended from the Metro Circle subway station entrance, not daring to get any closer to the building just yet. _Where the hell is he?_ She thought angrily at Adrian, she was starting to get worried too. If he had missed his mark too much, there was no knowing where he could possibly be and how long it would take him to find his way, if he could do it at all. She didn't know for how long she could afford to wait for him, or what to do if he failed to show up. _God damn it!_ She kicked the stone ledge on the side of the platform she was standing on, _I should never have agreed to take him with me. I don't have time for this!_

After fuming silently for a few minutes and abusing the architecture April decided to take some time to come up with a more refined plan, and if that time was not enough for Adrian to finally find his way, she would proceed without him. The thought of leaving him behind made her feel guilty, but it couldn't break her resolve. She did not ask him to join her, and would not back down because he couldn't keep up. She could not start wondering aimlessly throughout the entire neighborhood for who knew how many hours, on a slim chance that she could find him at all and not get into trouble herself. Nor did she feel like doing the same in the temple of the Balance, braving mysterious enchantments and looking for secret entrances in vain. She tried not to think about him anymore, concentrating on the monstrosity before her instead.

The entrance to the Grendel Avenue was, of course, isolated from its surroundings to an extent, its base went down below the subway entrance platform, firmly rooted into the low level where scum like herself were left to dwell and gawk up in wishfulness. A bridge connected the platform with the entrance, directly in front of the elevator doors. Five guards stood there. April wasn't sure there was any other way to get to the elevator, from another side. She thought hard about it, this required a foolproof plan she knew she would never come up with. No matter how she looked at it, there were only too many risks. First of all, the elevator may not have been in a working condition, even after the electricity returned. In such case, if, by some miracle she got to enter it, she'd be breaking her way up onto the car roof and rope climbing a frightening vertical distance, after which she would be facing the risk of running into guards that could be stationed at the doors she would use to exit. She didn't know what the situation was like on the mid and upper levels. If there was a curfew down here, she expected an even stricter one up there - increased security for the elite citizens, for sure. But there was no other way to enter those levels. Theoretically one might try and climb up the elevator building from outside… and fall to one's death at the bottom of it because it had certainly not been built to accommodate rookie alpinists.

It looked nearly hopeless, but April wasn't completely unprepared for the venture. There were Roper Klacks' vials still holding what remained of the potions she'd brewed, little as there was. She had already tested the Invisibility potion in Stark and it had worked like a charm. Although it was worth remembering that this had happened before restoring the Balance, therefore there was no knowing what effect it might have, if any at all, after the very laws of nature had been altered. Still, she had a gut feeling that it _would_ work. April still remembered the four tiers of magic recounted for her by the innkeeper, and alchemy was the bottom one, the only one not requiring its wielder to have any magical powers whatsoever. If only it was non-magical enough to slip by the Guardian's attention, she could use it. She checked her stock again. There were only four vials left. The Magic Enhancement potion had been very thoughtlessly wasted by her smashing the glass vial onto her… no, the thirteenth Guardian's talisman. The Invisibility and Wind potions were very nearly out. The Wind potion was only enough to color the bottom of the vial, what with her having made very generous contributions of it to the tasks like steering a flying castle and a sailing ship. There were still a few gulps of the Invisibility potion left, but it would be drained after using it a couple of times, for sure. If she used them, she would have to make sure it worked out, there would be no second chance. Then there was the Explosive potion. This she had plenty of, having only sprinkled it out once. The potion was destructive enough in small doses to last her for a long time, longer than the other three at any rate. And of course, the Light as a Leaf potion, more than a half of it had been preserved. For a moment she was caught up in an imaginary climb up the building with its help. While, again, theoretically possible, remembering how long it had lasted when she had used it - which was not very long at all - the thought was quickly thrown aside. She looked up at the top of it which pretty much disappeared out of her sight in all the smog hovering in the air. If she didn't reach it in time before the effect ran out, or didn't stop conveniently somewhere she could hold on and keep climbing in normal conditions, she'd plummet down like a stone. An even bigger problem would be being seen and easily targeted on the facade of the tower. _This can be simple._ She repeated to herself. _All I need to do is distract the security, get in the elevator and then up - either by the elevator or by rope climbing and I'll make sure I'm fast enough._

It took five more minutes of deep contemplation and encouraging herself. There was a bit of a daredevil like flare to the whole thing. But April was starting to learn that it was precisely this sort of plans she could ever come up with and more often than not, they helped her achieve her goals. Taking one more hopeless look around she made sure there was no sight of Adrian anywhere. Oh well, she couldn't wait for him forever, so she set to her plan. _I will need a really good distraction to distract them long enough to get into the elevator unnoticed._ And she kept repeating that in her head while opening the almost empty vial of the Wind Potion and the almost full one of the Explosive potion. She started to pour the contents from the latter one into the former, keenly aware of the possibility that it could blow up in her hands any second. The moment two potions touched, there was a reaction, the substance changed color and became a deep indigo, it also started whirling and released a few cracks to April's great terror. _Please, don't blow up, please!_ She begged mentally, preparing to throw the thing away as far as she could at a moment's notice. It didn't. The sparks soon died down and the potion kept playing a whirlpool. After waiting for a few seconds to make sure there was no imminent danger, April sighed in relief, shut the cork on the explosive potion's vial which still held quite a bit of the hazardous liquid and took the next one - The Light-as-a-Leaf potion. Repeating the process she eyed the vial in wonder. The new mix was a more grayish liquid that left the bottom of its glassy container and whirled hovering in the middle of it, as if free of gravity. She pulled the last one - the invisibility potion and poured as little as she could afford into the vial. Adding it seemed to have no effect, at least none visible to the eye - very fitting, once she thought about it.

In the end she didn't know what she could expect from the final result of her impromptu brewery, but if she wanted to create a mayhem worthy of attention from all the security guards, she needed to go for the messiest thing she could think of. She didn't know what was scarier: the improvised potion not working well enough, or working too well. She sighed again, pursing her lips. There was no point contemplating that, when she knew there was nothing to be done but try it in practice and see how it went.

Putting on a brave face April walked along the edge of the platform. She tried not to get too close to the edge or look in the direction of the elevator anymore. She already noticed a guard glancing her way with obvious suspicion and drawing their attention to herself was not what she was trying to achieve. It took more walking than it should've if the city urbanists had done their job better, but she got to a spot that faced the opposite side of the elevator tower. She was right, there was no other bridge connecting it to the surroundings, but she didn't need one. She figured if there had been any, there would definitely have been more guards stationed at it. The tower wall was not too far away, she couldn't physically reach it herself, but a small object thrown with enough strength would have no problem.

Adjusting the satchel on her shoulder, April made sure she knew which vial was which well enough and could pick the right one the second she needed it. There could be no mistakes here or she would pay a dear price. Screwing up her courage she lifted her right arm and threw the vial of the new mixed potion with as much strength as she could, hitting the thick wall and smashing the vial into tiny sparkling pieces that shot apart with a lot more speed than it was normal. They looked like tiny meteorites rushing in all directions, leaving faint glowing trails behind. Immediately there was a roar, a small, yet incredibly powerful tornado rose from the spot she had hit. The gust of wind almost knocked her back off her feet and from the dismayed yells that came from the other side, the security had very nearly done so too. The tornado glowed sea green and seemed to produce dark cloudy swirl from the inside. April found herself rooted to the spot, horror struck, recognizing the familiar visual traits of the thing she had unleashed. It moved fast and chaotically around and up along the circular tower, smashing into it from time to time, with a series of spectacular loud explosions.

Sounds of running footsteps and uncensored exclamations led April out of the stupor. Just before the guards came running around their post to see what the hell was going on she quickly gulped down what remained of the invisibility potion and bolted back to the bridge that led to the elevator door. She didn't need to wait for the effect. The guards that came into view only a moment later clearly didn't see her and she was absolutely sure the loud bangs would drown the sound of her footsteps. In a few seconds it took her to cross the bridge - now unprotected - something happened. There was a vaguely identifiable sound of some sort of an engine shutting down and the elevator button - initially glowing with red electric light – darkened. Her eyes widened in panic. She hit it desperately, even knowing that it would be in vain now. Nothing happened. She looked around frantically and saw that the few lights she'd noticed earlier in partly demolished buildings hadn't gone out. It looked like the city as a whole was not bereft of such luxuries as electricity, only the part where she needed them most. And yet, she had been prepared for something like that and this was no time for second thoughts or hesitation. Not allowing herself the time to mourn the loss of an easier way, she practically tore open the vial of the Explosive potion, took a few quick steps back and splashed a small portion of it with a surprisingly well-measured hand gesture right onto the door. With a bang it tore a sizable hole through the thick metal. April immediately ran to it and clambered inside, hoping the security guards were well occupied and that the new explosion hadn't stood out to them among the ones that were still taking place wherever the tornado was. From the sounds of yelling, swearing and the Alchemic storm still thundering outside, it seemed like she was right. It wasn't until she had found herself in the darkness with both feet firmly on the elevator floor that she even remembered, the car could very easily have been absent and in that case she would have found herself falling down God knew what distance to certain death.

The noise was starting to subside, and soon she would lose her chance to go unnoticed. Fumbling around in nearly full darkness, since the hole she'd made didn't provide much light, she found a corner to crouch in, curled up trying to make herself as small as possible and covered her head with her arm. She mentally contemplated the size of the elevator and where the opposite corner of the ceiling would be. With an upward jerk of her hand she threw a fraction of the explosive potion up in what she hoped was the right direction. The cabin shook violently and for a moment she thought it would be torn off and racing down after all, but it didn't. Debris rained down on her and on the floor around her, but nothing too heavy or too sharp fell on her directly. Grateful for her incredible luck, she stumbled forward, arms outstretched, hands searching, trying not to fall over anything. There was a gap, she could just feel it above her head and she couldn't reach its top edge. It could be big enough. Her hand touched the hard, uneven surface of the wall just outside the car, which had suffered from the blast as well. The dent was sizable, almost like a small cave etched into the massive wall, and April's heart leapt with realization that she could probably climb out very easily. Wasting no time she held onto the jagged edge of the hole, put a foot onto the wall and pushed her body up and away from it, lifting the other leg and doing the same thing with that foot as well. She gained a whole new level of appreciation for whoever manufactured the soles of her boots that helped her up on this slippery wall. She moved her right hand on the side to a slightly higher spot on the hole's edge. When she was confident that it would not be breaking off under pressure, she shifted her weight and lifted herself up, propping her body on the left arm. She pressed her lips hard and stifled a whimper when the sharp edge cut into the skin of her palm, almost causing her to fall back, but she didn't stop. She managed to curl one leg underneath her and bring it up high enough to press her knee onto the edge as well. It was a very painful effort but it paid off. And soon she was out of the cabin, on the "floor" in the cavelike wall, with one arm up, seeking a purchase onto the roof. She found it none too soon, since that very moment, she thought she heard someone running to the elevator door. It wasn't loud enough for her to be sure, but April froze and held her breath anyway. Had one of the guards returned to the post? The noise from her made-to-order Chaos Ministorm had become more distant and maybe the guards were snapping out of their bewilderment and remembering their duty. In any case she couldn't remain where she was, so, as carefully as she could, she started climbing out of the ruined car, hoping that the very obvious dent in the door would be blamed on the magical phenomenon they'd all witnessed and they would not be scrabbling inside after her to check for intruders. She carefully felt the edge of the ceiling of the denture above her head with one hand and the damaged ceiling of the elevator car with the other. They were closer together than she'd hoped, but she was almost sure the gap between them was big enough to get through. With that thought she leaned to the gap and pulled her head and hands through it, finding purchase on the roof and crawling through. She tried her best not to grunt when she grazed her back onto the wall, or not to hit anything with her feet loud enough to give herself away. Her progress was made very awkward by the limitations of space and freedom of movement.

She had crawled all the way up to her waist when she heard exactly what she had been dreading to hear: shuffling and steps inside the cabin. The person outside was crawling in. She froze a second time, gripped by indecision, not knowing whether to stay unmoving, hoping there would be no flashlight in her direction and counting on the darkness to hide her, the effect of the small doze of her Invisibility potion already having eft her body - until they left in peace, or to throw caution to wind and get away as fast as possible, revealing her presence in the process.

There was no sign of a flashlight, but more voices came from outside, not shouting anymore, but speaking loudly, ranting, exchanging their displeasure and shock. The fact that she could hear them meant they were near and would be resuming their posts pretty soon. The instinct to run took over. She put both hands on the roof, and putting all her strength in her arms, dragged herself up as fast as she could, digging her feet into the harsh hard surface of the wall denture this time, causing some rubble to fall down. Before she was completely up, she was stopped by an unexpected hoarse whisper from the intruder. "April? Are you there?"

"Adrian?" She almost cried out with shock and relief and indignation, but managed to gather her wits in time to whisper more forcefully than she usually would. "Where have you been? How did you..."

"No time!" he cut her off urgently, "The guards are almost here, tell me what to do!"

"There's a hole here," she answered immediately, hoping he would find it by following her voice, which he did. A moment later she felt his hand brush her boot, "climb up." She said shortly and followed her own advice, drawing her whole body upwards, finally clambering up completely, sprawled gracelessly on the uneven surface adorned with massive metal parts, waiting with baited breath for Adrian to do the same. His progress was even slower, but it seemed to be due to his attempt at stealth. Good thinking too, since the talk outside got very close. Thankfully the guards were loud enough to drown the tapping and harsh breathing inside. He worked his way up diligently. April's fear that he may get stuck, since he was considerably thicker build than her, was almost proven right at one point, when his head poked out of the hole - her eyes had adjusted enough to see a faint outline even if there was nothing visible on a considerable distance from the hole, some brave photons were probably to be credited for having travelled all this way after them through the hole in the elevator door - and halted, going completely still, but the next moment she knew he had simply heard something she hadn't.

"God damn it! Even here?!" came an exasperated voice from one of the guards, a few swore loudly. Then, to April's horror there was a slight shimmer of pale light along the edge of the gap. _A flashlight! They're checking inside!_ She stood as silently as she could and groped around blindly, feeling the walls and finding them frustratingly smooth, no ladder was attached to any of them. Climbing would be impossible, as far as she could judge without proper eyesight. "Wait! It's different! Look!" Said another man and there were footsteps very close indeed. Adrian must have sensed the danger since he renewed his effort to get up there. He was very good at keeping it quiet, she realized, she could barely hear him herself. "This one's real!" the guard shouted to her surprise. "Look at this! I can put my hand in!" April couldn't understand what in the world they meant by that and didn't have time to properly think about it. She kept searching around, trying not to step on Adrian in the process, until she was absolutely sure there really was no ladder installed in the shaft for repairs. They would have to use the steel cables attached to the car to climb all the way up. The only reason this task didn't seem impossible was a portion of magic still in her possession. "Wait! Someone did this on purpose!" Said a rough voice. And finally the twelfth Guardian's nerves took over. In his last struggle to drag himself upwards as fast as possible, he failed to get a good foothold. He slipped and while he was no longer in danger of falling down, the rubble underneath his feet was and did just that. The worst happened, they immediately heard the reactions from the guards. "What's that? Someone's in there!" The words were shouted, a beam of light flashed at an odd angle through the hole they had both climbed up through. If the guards hadn't gotten in yet, they would now.

Adrian was on his feet. He hurried to her side and whispered "what now?" Guns clicked outside, the security ready to fire.

"We know you're there! Come out of the elevator immediately, or we will use force!"

April quickly removed the cork from her final vial - the Light as a Leaf potion, which glowed faintly. She smelled it to make sure it was the right one. "This potion will make you very light." She whispered to him.

"We're not messing around! Until the count of three, if you're not out or don't give us any sign that you're surrendering, we'll blast the damn elevator!"

"We'll drink this and be able to jump very high."

"One!"

"Use these cables to go up quickly and hold on when the effect wears off."

"Two!"

She took one generous gulp from it, found his hand in the dark and shoved the vial to him.

"Three!"

Even as Adrian took the vial to his lips, April jumped with as much might as she could, unwilling to waste a second of the familiar sense of weightlessness spreading from her stomach to her very fingertips.

"Blast the damn door down!" she heard the voice rapidly growing more distant as she sped up the steely wires with tremendous speed, using her hands and feet to steer herself vertically by constantly gripping the cables and throwing the rest of her body up with renewed momentum.

Blasts! The sound was deafening, their echoes filled the shaft and almost made her stall, the cables shook with the assaulted elevator car. A quick glance down proved that the security guards had taken down the doors, but hadn't destroyed the car completely, there was still the uneven patch of now a lot brighter light that indicated the dent her explosive potion had made, meaning at least the roof was intact. The good news was that she could see a bit more now, and she could see that Adrian was safely on her tail, ascending in the same fashion.

"Hurry up!" she called, not bothering to keep her voice down quite as much anymore and tried to apply even more strength to her efforts, trying to keep her body more straightened vertically and reduce the air resistance this way, trying to keep her hands as close to the cables as possible, aware that she could lose this magical ability at any second. The shouting voices of the guards were coming from unbelievably far already, echoing faintly and practically indiscernible. She didn't know how high they'd climbed (jumped, flown) up and how much was still left, knowing only that they would need to get all the way up to the last floor for the most desirable result.

Unfortunately, like all good things in life, this magical ride didn't last very long either. In a few minutes April felt her usual weight settling down her body drop by drop. She continued up frantically, trying to take advantage of every fraction of a second she remained under the potion's influence, until all of a sudden she had to grab the cables and wrap her legs around them, gripping as tight as she could as she came sliding down a little distance and earned a constricted yelp from Adrian, when her boots hit his fists and almost pushed him off. The rope like texture of the cable chafed the skin on her already abused palms. They burned and stung painfully, her left one in particular was on fire, already having been injured down in the elevator. She was sure she would be leaving a continuous bloody trail with it when she tried to climb normally. _How much further?_ She thought desperately, looking up as if she would actually be able to see anything in pitch black darkness.

"Are you alright?" Adrian whispered, his voice uncertain and full of concern. He hung there unmoving, it looked like he too had been subjected to gravity again.

"Yeah…" April whispered back, even though she thought whispering was unnecessary. The truth was, she didn't trust her voice not to break if she spoke aloud, even her whisper came out strained. He must have realized the state she was in, at least partly.

"Can you continue?" He inquired.

"Yes, I can." April said fiercely, ordering herself to believe it was true. Almost trying to spite her own weakness, she moved her injured hand up and torturously, stubbornly dragged her body up, refusing to listen to the burning pain of her hand, of skin being peeled off the flash. They could only hope that they had come close to the upper level, because otherwise she didn't trust herself to be able to go on for too long and she definitely couldn't rely on Adrian to carry her up while climbing with one hand himself. She inched up slow as a snail, Adrian followed her after waiting to make sure there was enough distance between them. Her breathing became heavy and less and less controlled, she couldn't stop a few grunts and whimpers escaping her.

"April, there's still a bit of the potion left in this!" Adrian said suddenly, causing her to halt and look down at him in shock. "Very little, but probably enough to help you go up a bit more."

"What about you?" She asked meekly, but in truth relief flooded her and she was ready to snatch it out of his hand the moment he extended it.

"I'm fine, I'll keep climbing. Just take it." He said. The cable shook a bit more, she guessed Adrian had adjusted his weight to reach into his pocket for the vial. Indeed, the faint magical glow that followed the potions announced its emergence from Adrian's safekeeping. April prepared to reach with her doubtlessly bloodied hand and take it from him, but at that very moment they both stopped dead in their motions. There was loud squeaking and scratching and banging on metal that was coming from below, somewhere in the endless pit. _Oh what now?_ She saw a small white bright patch grow in the wall several meters below them. Someone opened a door they couldn't see before. The very blood in her veins froze. They both hung unmoving – an excruciating task when it involved metal cables and wet, injured hands - and trying not to breath too loud. There was movement, shadows in the bright light - two people poked their heads in, one had a flashlight pointed down. April squinted a bit. She couldn't be absolutely sure, but it looked like the other had a gun. While she contemplated what to do, they spoke, their voices echoed loudly.

"Can you see them?"

"Nah, they must be too far down yet. We're wasting our time if you ask me, no way they can get all the way up here, this shit is huge! They will either fall down or climb down."

"Unless they have some equipment to help them up."

"How long are we supposed to wait for them here?"

"Until we've got them, or we're told we can go."

"Shit."

The guards kept their faces peering downwards, unaware that their targets were already well above them. Not thinking that even with special equipment they could have gone at such a speed, and in truth April herself was surprised to see the progress they'd had in what must have been two or three minutes. A sudden realization came to her - the two guards that waited for them at the doors must have been on the mid level, and being as high above it as they were… She glanced up again, careful not to alert them with her movement. She couldn't see what she was looking for but she thought… She hoped their exit was not too far away anymore. After all, while the mid and high levels were elevated worlds above the low level of the city, they were relatively closer to each other. _How much further?_ She asked herself again, this time with a spark of hope. And would they be able to stay undetected while they climbed? The cables would move, their scrabbling would make sounds. Would it be enough for them to realize the signs of movement were coming from above and not below as they had been convinced? And what if guards were mobilized at the upper level exit as well? No, she assured herself it was very unlikely. No door had opened above, not yet at least. Whoever found a way to contact the mid level probably found it unnecessary to alert anyone up there.

In any case they had only one way left to go and a limited amount of time and energy to do so. April's hands were slipping painfully again. She grit her teeth and gripped them tighter and looked down to Adrian to gesture up, letting him know they should go on. Adrian, however, had done some decision making of his own while she had been deliberating. He slowly removed the cork from the vial with his teeth and held it in his hand with the vial itself, not daring to drop it. Then, after one last quick glance at the danger below and an encouraging nod and a smile at April he put the vial to his lips and consumed all the remaining substance in one go.

April only had time to blink incredulously at him, for suddenly drinking the potion he had offered to _her_ just a minute ago. Before she could feel adequately indignant at his less than chivalrous behavior, he put the vial hastily back in his pocket and was off in an instant. When he leapt up, April tried to shrink herself to avoid collision and falling off. To her surprise though he stopped exactly at her level, hanging (if one could call it that when he was practically levitating) with his left hand on the cable right above her head. In a second he hooked his right arm around her waist, pulling her tightly to himself and yanking her off the cables with one forceful jerk. The movement caused the cables shake violently and voices from below let them know that it had not gone unnoticed or unnoted. April, realizing his intention, was positively horrified, but acting on instinct, she grabbed at his shoulders, practically hanging on his neck in a tight, desperate sort of embrace and they continued upwards, not quite as fast as before, but at a speed she wouldn't imagine possible with only one of them being a living Antigrav unit and having to move on strength of one arm only. That is, until she realized that she didn't feel her own weight anymore - a fact she failed to notice while concentrating on gluing herself onto the twelfth Guardian in an admittedly embarrassing fashion for people who barely knew each other, but secure enough to avoid being splattered onto the car roof countless feet below. Somehow - April didn't know how and didn't care to find out at that exact moment - the potion's effect had extended to her and there was hope again. They could reach the upper level, they were so high up already! If only the guards wouldn't think to search for them above… An indiscernible mix of shouted words caught up with them. _If only!_.. She thought more hysterically, sensing the danger, her intuition already beginning to tell her how fate had betrayed her again just as an earsplitting sound of a blaster gun almost made her scream and Adrian settled for a sharp intake of breath. Not only had the security seen them, they had opened fire without so much as a warning. It hit the shaft wall somewhere above them and she heard the rubble pouring down. Another shot was fired, then another, missing the targets thanks to all consuming darkness around and the amount of space between them, but after everything that had happened, April knew better than to rely on her luck for too long. Even a blind shot could hit them by accident, and Adrian was already slowing down.

Resigned for one of the worst risks even by her own new found standards, April looked down where she could still see the bright opening. With one hand she quickly reached into the satchel to pull out the explosive potion one more time. Since the direction in which the entrance to the mid level (or what she considered to be the mid level entrance) lay that way, it was a reasonable assumption that the upper level one would be on the same side, only several floors above.

"Get ready, we're going outside!" She said to Adrian in a strained voice and, aiming below, threw the whole vial itself , hoping that the amount still left in it would be enough to break a hole through the massive wall. The explosion was nothing short of spectacular, almost outshining the first time she used that particular potion in Roper Klacks' castle. The outburst of light was blinding, the loud bang was accompanied by now familiar magical swooshing sounds, red sparks flew everywhere and the debris fell down in large chunks and small splits. The two of them were almost thrown upwards if not for Adrian grabbing the cables with both his hands and hooking legs around them, holding on with all his strength, and April holding onto him the exact same way.

They both quickly looked at the damage they'd done and April's heart leapt seeing a bit of light coming from it. It also became obvious just how thick the walls were, after Adrian, taking advantage of the weightless state that was quickly dwindling away, took a leap of faith right onto the new cavelike formation the explosion had made, which still wasn't a tunnel with an open exit. April jumped off her carrier, pushed aside the urge to fall down and curl up into a fetal position and pushed what remained of the wall that still stood in their way. It was a thin sheet of building material only. Adrian joined her after taking a few deep breaths and together they punched and kicked the feeble obstacles out of their way. Breaking their way out of the wall altogether.

A view of a simple deserted and barely lit corridor and the synthetic smell of washing and disinfectant liquids had never been so welcome, nor the sight of a solid floor just three or four feet below them. She jumped without thinking twice, landing with a heavy thud thanks to her freshly regained weight and sprinted along it with all the speed she had, Adrian silently catching up with her.


	5. Tale 1 - Chapter 04

_**Tale 1 – The Breach**_

 **CHAPTER 04**

They didn't pause to look around and see properly where they were, or whether they were pursued or not. All April knew was that they needed to get away from their improvised exit point as fast as humanly possible. So, she ran, navigating the unknown structure of the huge tower, speeding up small flights of stairs, past stores and offices – all closed, taking turns on instinct, looking for the way into the shuttle station. Adrian followed her lead without a complaint. Only after they'd finally reached the last floor, which April recognized as the Metro Mall she'd visited days before, did they finally allow themselves to stop and draw breath. Only after this April remembered to look for any signs of life nearby other than themselves. The place was empty and silent, no lights were on, only the daylight coming from high windows was available. The two fugitives walked to the gate that led to the shuttles departing to Grendel Avenue. They both found this slow walk as the opportunity to assess their pitiful state of being.

"You're wounded." Adrian said suddenly, looking with frightful eyes. April took a look down at her palm. "It's just my hand," she said, lifting it to inspect it up close. There was a cut right across it, right in the middle. The edges were swollen and it stung badly, as much as she'd tried to ignore it. She tore a relatively clean piece off her tunic – the material was harder than she'd anticipated, and a pretty painful effort for her injury - and wrapped it as tightly over the wound as she could, trying to subdue the pain.

"That wound needs proper treatment." Adrian said unnecessarily. She'd need medical care for it, she silently agreed with him, but that sort of luxury would have to wait until later.

"I know," she sighed, "When we get back… And you don't look that well yourself, you know. You don't have any serious injuries, do you?"

He shook his head at once, even before he started examining himself. "Just a few scratches, nothing dangerous. Our looks might give us away though." He said frowning, examining a torn sleeve of his shirt. Sure enough, they looked as unworthy of the upper level, and Grendel Avenue in particular, as they could. April's left hand, which she held in a tight fist both to keep the clumsy wrapping in place and to force the blood flowing from her untended injury stop, was all red up to and past her wrist and had apparently left many marks here and there. Her tunic front was bloodstained, dirty and wet from sweat, she had torn her pants at her knee and she wouldn't dare take a good look at herself in one of the many glossy surfaces around there to check the state of her hair. Adrian wasn't much better off, except he had less blood on him, and probably most of it was hers, and his hair was still too short to be capable of being messed up. Otherwise he looked like a slumdog just like she did, dirty, sweaty, and she noticed he had torn his shirt in quite a few places, especially on the back, most probably when trying to get up on the elevator car. If there were any cops around who had been notified about their unsanctioned visit, they would be caught out by just being looked at.

"What choice do we have?" April asked, it was a rhetorical question and he must have understood as much, as he only nodded, pursing his lips. "Now what?" was all he asked. April, still not completely recovered from the 'exercise' and fright she'd received several minutes ago, jerked her head in the direction of the aerial dock, hurriedly heading towards it, not forgetting for a second that there was still pursuit somewhere behind (below?) them, even if their adversaries had lagged behind for a moment.

The gates were unprotected from man or technology, they passed through without encountering any hindrance and stopped short a few steps away from the shuttles. Luckily enough, there were several decent looking ones left. But there was a question hanging in the air, which she didn't want to voice, but her friend did it for her anyway. "Will those even work?" Adrian almost whispered, making rather accurate guess as to what their means of transportation should be and what new obstacle could be in their path. "And aren't these the sort of vehicles we were advised not to go near just this morning?" April's brows rose high in surprise at this, "The Vestrum has translated it for me." He explained, smiling sheepishly.

"We'll have to take a chance." She said decidedly and marched right to the nearest one. The Shuttle looked intimidating. Even though it hadn't been very long since she'd flown to the Guardian's Realm, sitting in a real pod for the first time in her life. By all rights the shuttle should've been easier to operate. Its structure was very close to that of a Hovercraft, and while she hadn't been near one since the day she passed the license test, she still should have been more confident than when she launched herself as well as completely clueless and confused Adrian into the open space. Sadly though, the very real chance that the thing might malfunction and the fresh memory of Hovercrafts falling from the sky to their tragic end didn't leave her mind.

But all the doubts and misgivings had to be cast away. She was aware that she had started on a roller-coaster which rushed her from one terrible danger to the other and she couldn't get off now, if she wanted to live.

A few minutes later, when April and the Twelfth Guardian were safely (or semi-safely) in their seats, the seat belts fastened, the shuttle soaring through the sky, Adrian's eyes fixed on their target destination, April frantically looking around to see any alarming signals from the system, she realized she'd broken all the records in the amount of questioning one's own decision making prowess in a single day. And it wasn't even noon yet. On the bright side her faith in her own luck restored a little bit by the fact that, incredibly, against all reasonable expectations, the Shuttle didn't malfunction the slightest bit, save for generally poor navigation due to the pilot's inexperience. "If only I could use the autopilot…" She grunted when a particularly strong jolt scared the breath out of them.

"What's an 'autopilot'?" Adrian asked, his voice just a little shaky.

"It's…" April struggled to find the right words for him, "It's a function that will make the aircraft fly on its own, without my commands."

"Oh?.." The idea didn't seem to enthuse him all that much, "Would it really be better to trust this mindless thing rather than your own knowledge and skill?"

April gripped the steer nervously, and allowed herself a humorless scoff, "If only I could count myself as knowledgeable or skillful, Adrian, if only." Almost as if to try and prove her disregard to her own worth correct, the shuttle gave another jolt and a shudder, the view in front of them became a little skewed. _Please, work well! Please!_ April pleaded wordlessly, trying to steady her heart gone rogue in her chest. Her eyes Froze on the wheel and if she'd tightened her grip even a bit, she might have risked breaking it. The aircraft seemed merciful, at least. Soon it stabilized and April somehow managed to correct the course, as vague a course as they had.

From the seat next to hers came a rather weak voice of her friend, causing her to tear her eyes off the 'road' and look at him in concern. "Why can't you use that autopilot then?" He moaned, his face was grayish and sweat covered. He looked exactly the way she felt.

"Because…" April responded in a shaky, a lot more high pitched voice than she intended, she took a deep breath and cleared her throat, "Because," she repeated with a more respectable tone, "if the autopilot malfunctions, it can take us to a very different direction or simply slam us into the nearest building. I... prefer to have as much control as I can right now." She swallowed hard and concentrated on the fast approaching hill. Grendel Avenue's massive, gleaming architecture was less than a minute away already. She remembered where the docs were, but turned the shuttle away from them, to a very different direction. They floated over the many aerial bridges and paths, the shadow of their vessel glided smoothly over their bright surfaces. She turned her head this way and that, searching a spot suitable for landing, hoping with all her might that she could land the damn thing properly, which had always been the hardest part for her in every training simulation she'd ever tried, never mind the brave, sometimes crazy flights through the air well above the virtual ground.

There was finally something ahead. A sizable park had been constructed in the middle of a circle of several skyscrapers – modest looking, by the standards of Grendel Avenue. It was a circular plane with green lawns, trees and bushes. Creepers had sprouted their branches all along its diameter, as if it were a precious jewel set in a bezel of green foliage. Several bridges shot out in the direction of every single skyscraper, connected to each other with narrower, less impressive bridges, allowing to choose whichever way anyone wanted to go from there. No people about. To April it looked like an obvious candidate for landing. Adrian probably thought the same. He shifted in his seat and clutched his seatbelt nervously, before she had even started in its direction. He made a sound indicative of something on his mind, but closed his mouth, and chose silence instead.

She didn't inquire just yet, deciding to occupy her mind with the task at hand and ensure their survival all the way to the end of their flight. Adjusting the speed, the angle, she gripped the wheel with more strength than she'd ever thought she'd had, even ignoring the trickle of blood coming down the handle and a fresh wave of pain in her palm. She tried to even her breath instead of holding it as she watched the "ground" coming closer and closer. For a moment there she thought she'd messed up, the shuttle was shaken by a sudden contact with the pavement so strongly, that had they not been secured in their seats, she and Adrian might've fallen out of them. Her whole body froze. Her eyes stayed wide open instead of shutting tight to spare her the horror of watching the approaching death at the very least…

But, thankfully, that moment passed. The shuttle stood still and April's hands shot to the buckles of her seatbelt without her even thinking about it. Adrian wrestled with his while she stood in front of the controls, shutting down the engine, trying to remember the safe and proper procedure of doing so. When they finally left the aircraft, it was in a hurry before anyone checked on an unregistered landing by unknown visitors and the abandoned shuttle. Her knees were shaking a bit, but overall she was almost pleased with herself. They scurried onto one of the bridges. There was no great dilemma in choosing the right direction, their target loomed over every other building, monstrous in size, as ominous as it was brilliant.

"May I ask…" Adrian broke the quiet almost reluctantly, "the reason we landed here and not to one of the places assigned for it?"

"Do you mean the docks?" April asked. He only nodded in response. "Because nobody expected us to land here, of course." She explained patiently.

"Oh…" He paused. "Good thinking," he finally said, "and good job on the flight too." He glanced for a moment down from the edge of the bridge and immediately brought his gaze back up.

April managed a feeble smile, grateful to hear something encouraging. "Thanks." She answered, and might have said something else as well, if not for the extremely disturbing noise that stopped their progress and made them look back in suspicion. It was coming from their shuttle, or, at least that was the only plausible suspect in vicinity. There was buzzing, irregular, racing up and down in volume as well as pitch, often interrupted with loud sizzling.

"What?.." April breathed, mostly to herself, eyes wide and fixed on the shuttle. Her feet took her a few steps back without her consent after cracking sounds came. "I shut it down, I shut it all down." She said, already preparing to flee from a fast approaching disaster, the likes of which she had already seen during the all around chaos days ago.

Adrian voiced her own thoughts a second later, "Should we run for our lives?" He asked urgently.

She didn't even need to answer. Fresh series of bangs made them both turn and run after merely exchanging a quick frightened look. April covered her ears and instructed him to do the same. She could only hope that they would get away fast enough from the force of explosion and the rain of metal debris that was bound to follow. When the sound of the final, powerful blast reached them, shaking the hanging ground beneath their feet, it caught up with them when they had nearly crossed that bridge and were about to enter a more dense, building rich section. For a fraction of a moment there was fear that the bridge would give way and break down. But it was, indeed, only their fear. The explosion, while loud, didn't prove to be as destructive to its surroundings as its sound would suggest. Another look back revealed the shuttle's shell still mostly intact, though deformed in places and releasing black smoke. Destructive or not though, it was noticeable and alarming, and was bound to bring some sort of patrol to the place quite soon. So they didn't risk another pause. They sped across the aerial walkways, taking odd turns to keep out of sight as much as possible. It was much more difficult to do in this brilliant place exposed to heavens and prying eyes, than it would be down on earth where the simple mortals lived, which was rife with shaded corners. Not to mention, April was only half paying attention while the other half of her mind was busy kicking her for making yet another stupid mistake, even though she was clueless what exactly it was – she had followed the instructions step by step, she was almost sure.

Finally, when they were both completely out of breath and April's heart issued a threat to get stuck in her throat and choke her, they stopped. Adrian initiated the idea, stopping abruptly and taking a sharp turn to take them to the nearest building, gesturing her to follow, looking frustrated and thoroughly exhausted. They stepped onto a courtyard of what could've been a fashionable club, or a banquet hall of some sort, at least the section in front of them was. There was no knowing how many facilities this or any other building could fit. This was yet another skyscraper among countless others. The main entrance, towards which Adrian headed – only to essentially collapse on its half a dozen steps, elbows on his knees and his head thrown back, exhaling deeply and slowly – was a tall door with a rounded top, shut tight and secure, of course. Statues stood on either side, their poses were graceful, the flow of the folds on their clothes exquisite. April was strongly reminded of antique Greek statues, yet this lot were clearly dressed in modern clothing. This perfect mixture of old and new was conveniently obscuring their image to anyone that might look in their direction from afar, making them harder to spot while giving them plenty of freedom to look around from that feeble shelter.

Apparently, the upper level was not in the least immune to the troubles that plagued the world down below. The spotlessness she had once seen here was marred by scorch marks telling the tales of fire hazards that must have taken place, and debris thrown around the many roads. What she really looked for, however, was a sign of patrolling cops coming their way - the cue to resume running and maybe duck and dodge blasts if needed. But nobody _was_ running their way, there came no blasts, not even angry shouts. In fact, no one was out as far as they could see. Maybe they were all shut in relative safety of their homes, intent on waiting out the troubled times. Maybe that was the reason cops were absent as well - guarding the wealthy individuals that could pay generously for such services, instead of marching in the deserted streets on the off chance that somebody wanted to cause trouble. _What do you know, even corruption has its pros,_ She thought.

"That could have happened while we were inside that thing, could it not?" Adrian spoke after a while. His voice was level again. He didn't sound reproachful, but it still sent April in defensive mode.

"I guess so." She muttered. "Although I still don't understand why it happened at all." There was no answer from him, his face was reshaped into a thoughtful frown, eyes looking in the distance. _Is he actually trying to figure out the reason?_ April thought bemused. The very idea sounded ridiculous, if _she,_ a girl of her time couldn't guess, the man lagging behind by over a thousand years had no chance. "We should get moving…" She urged him. He nodded and got up slowly. They crept to the edge of the building's wall to look around and make sure again that there was no pursuit after all. She thought she saw figures moving far from their spot, but neither of them could tell for sure whether they were police, or simple citizens. The figures didn't seem to be coming in their direction, which was a relief. Their destination - the grandiose building that housed MTI – was right ahead of them now, massive in size, shining and striking. The words "Malkuth Technologies Inc" stood proudly over the entrance in form of neat, stone carved letters. It wasn't too far, and the way was empty. She looked at Adrian and jerked her head towards it. The latter tamely spread his hands in a clear gesture of 'as you wish'.

They started briskly towards it, trying not to look too suspicious and shifty, but constantly looking around for signs of danger. They walked in silence, April still the one leading the way. She'd never given it a thought, but the structure of the mid and upper levels was eerily similar to Venice, what with all the bridges crisscrossing each other. Except, where Venice had water below, the levels had air. Where Venice was humble, homely and cozy, this place was enormous, majestic and polished. It bore down on anyone that didn't feel important enough, trying to squash all the seeds of confidence they might have and show them they didn't belong on the top of the world. She looked at Adrian, wondering how he felt being in this place. The latter was craning his neck in almost all directions. She noticed he avoided looking down, trying to keep his gaze to his eye level or higher, only glancing down for a second or two at a time. There was a twinge of guilt April quickly suppressed. She wasn't so stupid as to not realize how bizarre it all must have seemed to him, and that there was little to no chance he'd ever been on any building this tall. But she reminded herself that he'd insisted on coming with her and he had known all along where they would go.

It took them perhaps up to thirty minutes of walking a straightforward route. Close to the MTI tower, April came to an abrupt stop when she was near enough to see the entrance was guarded. Adrian came to a halt beside her. "What now?" he asked breathlessly. There was only one man, with no suit as it had become expectable, but a heavy, probably loaded gun in his hands. He saw them, they could tell, but didn't react immediately in any aggressive way, he just sent them the standard 'I'm watching you' kind of look before directing his eyes somewhere else.

April swallowed hard, "Theoretically," she said more to herself than him, "we should be allowed to just go inside. We are on the upper level, normally we should automatically be considered to be the upper level citizens..." She paused, chewing her lower lip.

"But…?" Adrian prompted her, but instead of giving her time to answer, he answered himself, "If any guards here have been notified that there was an intrusion, just like those men were who assaulted us down there, they will suspect us, especially given our barely presentable state." He made a vague gesture to indicate his clothing.

"Exactly." She said, taking a furtive look at the pathetic state of her own dressing. "But There's a chance..." she started, closing her eyes and tried to remove the messy bangs glued to her wet forehead, "that _this guy_ knows nothing about what happened, even if _someone_ is already notified. I think he could let us in and even answer our questions."

"And if he doesn't?" Adrian asked, unimpressed.

"He'll arrest us, or shoot us on the spot." She said with a false casual tone before switching to sincere urgency. "Look, we're out of time and out of potions. I can't pull any magic tricks anymore."

"I thought you were an Artisan." He reminded her.

"I'm not…. I mean," April threw an anxious look in the guard's direction, "whatever powers I have, I can't control them. Other than Shifting, I don't know how to use any magic..."

"Shifting isn't really magic..." Adrian noted, but April hardly cared about such details at the moment.

"It doesn't matter! Look, the point is, there is only one way we have in that building - the normal way. We have to go to him and pretend we belong here. Either we try to pull it off, or we might as well just go back where we came from."

"How are we going to do that?"

"I've just told you…

"No, no, no," he waved her off, "how are we going back, if you are unable to use any magic tricks as you called them? I'm quite sure we can't just jump off any of these bridges."

There was silence in which Adrian's gaze became more and more bewildered and April simply stood there while leading a mental fight with herself and her conscience. "You don't know?" he asked, his gray eyes slowly becoming so wide they might pop out of their sockets. His disbelief was so great it didn't seem to leave room for anger, which, she hated to admit, he had every right to. "You don't have any plans," he went on, still more incredulous, "nor any remote idea how we're supposed to be getting back?"

"Well, strictly speaking, I didn't exactly have a plan for getting in at first either, did I?" She muttered pouting a bit.

"And you called _me_ suicidal..." He kept staring at her open mouthed. April pursed her lips. This was no time to argue. If Adrian didn't want to follow her anymore, she couldn't force him, but he'd have to make a decision soon and not hinder her.

"So what now?" She challenged him, "Do you want to stay here and wait? 'Cause I don't mind if you do."

He snorted, "What's the point in that? I've come this far… I can't stop now, can I?"

His look was now plainly accusatory and she didn't know whom she wanted to kick more, him or herself. "Maybe, maybe not. You could wait outside until I return, that's always an option", she said, calling forth all the patience she possessed, "We're seriously running out of time, we need to get moving until someone finally deigns to go and check what that commotion was all about."

Adrian hung his head, resigned for the worst. "Let's go then." He said, grumpy and offended. But there was nothing April could do or say to lift his mood, or her own, for that matter. So, without any further discussion, they headed directly to the huge building they'd both had the misfortune of 'visiting' once before.

Trying not to think about what the guard would make of their less than stately appearance, April cleared her throat loudly as they got close to the entrance. Here, for once, things actually didn't seem to go very wrong. The guard eyed them with surprise, clearly taking note of their bloodied clothes. "Ma'am, sir…" he started uncertainty, "please, be warned that citizens are not advised to walk outside until further notice." Then, still more hesitantly, added, "Do you require help of any kind?"

April put on her best brattiest demeanor. "Oh we're just fine." She said, hoping to sound as arrogant and spoiled rotten as she was supposed to. "We may need to ask you a few questions though." The guard straightened to attention, looking wary, expecting trouble, perhaps? She imagined he could've thought he'd be blamed for whatever misfortune had befallen her and her companion. "How often are you stationed here?" She asked him curiously. The question caught the man by surprise.

"Me, ma'am? My regular post isn't here, but there is a shortage of hands so they sent me to guard this entrance for now."

"Oh…" April thought for a bit. "So you weren't stationed here uh… last Sunday?" She hoped she remembered the right day.

"No, ma'am." He said, looking at her blankly.

"Do you know who was?"

"No, ma'am." He shook his head lightly, "May I ask why you inquire?"

 _He definitely thinks there's some trouble,_ April thought. Out loud she said, "I have a few questions for him regarding a very important matter."

"Well, I honestly don't know, ma'am. I would advise asking the personnel manager but most people who work here… well, they're not here now, of course."

It took a bit of effort to hide how excited the news made her. "Alright, sorry to bother you." She said briskly, as she noticed Adrian starting to fidget in place, the reason soon obvious to her - she heard distant shouts. It sounded like someone might have had taken notice of the unregistered shuttle laying smoking in the middle of the lovely square. It was time to leave.

"Now let us in, please." She said, cocky and cold. And to her utter amazement, after just two seconds of staring at her in blank surprise, the guard simply complied, doing nothing but huffing in a frustrated, tired kind of way - so uncharacteristic for the day for someone to be less than problematic. "Yes, of course." He said, sounding strangely bored, moving aside to let them pass.

"Thank you." She said and walked past him with her chin held up, with Adrian in tow.

"We're here to serve and protect!" The words caught up with them in the darkness.

Their footsteps echoed in the spacious, empty corridor. April felt a bit chilly when they stepped inside the large circular hall. The bright illumination that used to greet the incomers was off, daylight barely entered from the short corridor, still making it possible to see the shape of their surroundings. For a second April felt disheartened by this, thinking the electricity had let her down a second time, remembering apprehensively that she didn't see a single lightbulb on since she stepped in Grendel avenue. But she quickly noticed the electric lights on the receptionists desk and the faint light of the elevator button. "The power's on!" She breathed, excited and relieved. "If the staff hasn't been here to turn all this on… these guys must have some automatized backup generators working on fuel to keep the important functions of their facilities running for days!"

"Did nobody else have those?" Adrian wondered. "Why didn't people use them?"

"Some probably did, but either they didn't work or there just wasn't enough to keep them going for this long. The generators would cost money, as well as their fuel," she explained, "to keep all this" she gestured all around them "running working for this long, they would need tons of generators, or one huge and powerful one. These guys are rich enough for that… Nothing for us to complain about at the moment at least."

They stood in the middle of the hall, April glancing from the elevator to a relatively small door on the opposite side, unsure what to do next.

"Where to?" Adrian asked, a little impatient.

"Well, I think we should go this way first." She pointed to the door. "I need to find the personnel records and see who was stationed at the entrance that day. The guy outside was no help." She headed to the door.

"Do you think he could be a valuable witness?" Adrian asked, following closely. April wasn't pleased to hear a tad of doubt in his voice.

"Yes, it's pretty much what I hope for." She answered briskly.

"Why not anyone else?" He objected. "This place is huge and filled with dwellers. Many people could have seen the battle."

"Yes," she agreed irritably, "except I can't go knocking on every door on every street and asking random people whether or not they saw two dragons fighting in the air. I have no idea who might have been here in this part of Grendel Avenue and who could witness it all. The security guards, on the other hand, are a different thing. They are supposed to be on a lookout all the time. If two dragons fighting each other fell from the sky right above their heads, they were bound to notice it and even if they thought it was a show of some kind, it would still be one hell of an impressive show, they wouldn't just ignore it. So our best bet and the shortest route is finding whoever was standing out there when the battle happened. Understood?"

Adrian sighed, "Yes."

The door slid open the moment they approached it and they entered a very dark corridor. April had to start sliding her hand along the wall to make sure she didn't lose the sense of direction. There were more lights right ahead of them, blinking green and providing minimal lighting, only enough for them to know the tiny lightbulbs were placed on doors. When they got close, those doors started sliding open as well. April's initial relief from having her life turn easier slowly turned into dismay. When the first door she got level with opened wide for her convenience, she found it strange and suspicious. _This is supposed to be the enemy's fortified heart, it should not be welcoming me with open arms._ "Umm… try to be as quiet and attentive as possible, okay?" she half whispered to her companion and slowly, carefully crept inside. The moment she did so, she realized it would be very hard to find anything in here. The door swished shut in a few seconds and she and Adrian found themselves in pitch black darkness. "Find a light switch." she told Adrian exasperated. "A little protruding thing somewhere on the wall." She clarified in case he didn't understand what she was referring to. Shuffling in the darkness they both took to searching different walls.

"I think I have found it!" Adrian exclaimed suddenly and there was a clicking sound which confirmed his success, but the bulbs remained stubbornly unresponsive.

"You gotta be kidding me!" She snapped.

"No, I really have! It's just not working!" he said defensively. April scoffed.

"That's not what I meant, it's just an expression." She waved her way to him through the pool of darkness. "The power is definitely on to keep the doors functional, but the electricity isn't provided to the light bulbs? It's like a bad joke." She found Adrian's head and knew the switch had to be nearby.

"Do you think it was done on purpose then?" He asked anxiously. April found the switch.

"If it was," she said clicking it on and off in vain. "I doubt it was a trap of any kind." She gave up. "I suppose they needed to get around the place more than they needed the light, so they decided to save up some energy. They must have disabled illumination on purpose. Let's see if we can find a flashlight somewhere here."

Their search was long, rife with stumbling into furniture, metal shelves, each other and falling over card boxes. When cold light suddenly cut the dark and almost blinded Adrian, who had been holding the flashlight directed at his own face - having never held a working one in his life - it felt like a small prize for their troubles.

"Thank God," she sighed, rubbing her bruised elbow - earned from an unwanted contact with a drawer knob, "let's see where we are."

Taking a look at the room didn't provide the needed information. They headed outside, the doors obediently moved out of their way. Going label after label they finally found the door that said "Archives". April stepped in eagerly. "This looks too good!" She said, pointing to the many rows of shelves that held files - physical, tangible, good old plastic and paper files. She dashed to them, searching for personnel records. There was a whole section dedicated to security. Beyond the shelves on the other end of the room there was a screen and, by the looks of it, it was _on_. April promptly took the seat in front of it, launching an elaborate search through the files, while Adrian stood behind her, observing the screen with genuine interest. _It must look like a magic mirror to him,_ she thought. "I'm looking for the schedule." She explained, "The guy outside wasn't here that day, so he doesn't know anything. If I can find the schedule, I'll know exactly who I need to question." He only nodded. She wasn't entirely sure he truly heard her, he seemed absorbed in the screen.

She didn't need to search too deep, there were hardly any files except for the plain databases and spreadsheets (there was only one suspicious folder she wouldn't touch, _ingeniously_ named "Ero"). The Database she was looking for was quickly discovered. April scrolled through the huge list, organized by many sections of the building. The sheer amount of those was overwhelming. When the desirable date was finally found, she stared at it eagerly. There were two people assigned to guard the main entrance of the MTI building. It seemed they had worked in shifts. She closed her eyes for a moment, making sure she remembered the time of the day right. It had been evening, a glorious sunset fit for the epic battle of two mighty dragons. She tucked the sad memory away for the moment. Officer William Howden was assigned on her target post during most of he second half of the day. April jumped up from the chair and ran back to the shelves. "It must be here!" She whispered wishfully. Adrian stood beside her, providing much needed light. She scanned frantically. The guards were many and so were technicians and engineers looking after all the equipment and providing new security plans. But she found him soon. The file H I-U - had to include the man's data. She snatched the file and dragged it out of its row, tearing it open and skimming through the pages eagerly. "Howden… Howden…" she mumbled… There it was - "Howden, William". There was his full name and contact information, and many other things she had no interest in - tiniest details of the person's health, personality, habits and connections in life were all documented and put down for her convenience. "Found him!" She grinned at Adrian. "Here's his address, it's…" Her face fell just a little bit, "I hope we can find him soon though. I don't know the upper level at all, I have no idea where this might be."

She was broken out of her contemplation by Adrian suddenly going to the door, leaving her standing in the relative darkness, creeping silently and grimacing when the door automatically slid out of his way. "Damnation!" He hissed.

"What is it?" April asked, but he waved her quiet. She put down the file carefully, rolled the papers of officer Howden and put them in her satchel in a hurry before she crept up to him.

"I heard footsteps." He whispered, "Someone was here near this door."

She felt chilly. "You think guards are checking out this place?" She asked, lowering her voice even more than him, hardly even hearing herself.

"No, it didn't sound like it could be them. The guards I've seen are all heavy build and wearing heavy footwear." He observed thoughtfully, "That sound was light tapping on the floor."

"Could be anyone from the personnel," She mused, "it could be the cleaning staff or…"

Adrian poked his head out. "Whoever it was they were not carrying any light." He told her. "Do you think it's possible, perhaps, that someone wandered in by mistake?"

"Yeah, let's hope so." April answered without any real hope, trouble seemed to like to find her just when she thought things were going her way.

"If we have what we needed, we should get moving." Adrian said before she would. Nodding affirmative April followed him out. He kept the flashlight directed strictly under their feet, not to attract attention earlier than necessary.

They passed the corridor without meeting anyone and were soon back in the large circular hall, still just as empty and quiet as it was when they entered. The mysterious person was nowhere to be seen. "Where to now?" He asked.

April pointed to the elevator. "The office of the Green of the Draic Kin." She told him in a dramatic whisper. "The last time I was there, there was a lot of valuable information there, and that's only at a glance. I'm sure we can find many important documents in there, I don't think MacAllen would trust anyone with the most important secrets, especially about himself. He would keep everything that mattered close."

"Like any legendary dragon guarding a cave filled with treasures." He noted and shrugged, "Lead the way then."

April headed to the receptionist's desk. There were several buttons on the display. She was sure the security alarm would be a hidden button somewhere underneath. It left only one obvious suspect and that was a gold colored button on the far side of the surface, easily set apart from others, with two buttons with arrows to its side. It looked fancy and special enough to belong to the extravagant leader of the Church of Voltec. Worth trying. Her hand was just above the button when a loud hiss and a subdued bang of a door made her jump. She and Adrian both spun to the direction of the sound and gaped in surprise at the unexpected guest.

A little girl had come out of the very corridor they themselves had just left a minute ago. She looked seven or eight years old at most. She had blond curly hair and curios blue eyes, which she fixed on them intently, while slowly, carefully coming forward. _So it was_ _her_ _footsteps Adrian heard,_ April realized with a mounting sense of unease. "Hello!" She tried to sound as unperturbed as possible. "What are you doing here alone?" _If she's alone, that is._

The girl stopped halfway between them and where she'd come from, stray wisps of hair around her face glowed faintly and made her disturbingly ethereal in appearance, standing there in the middle of an abandoned, shaded, echoing hall. "What are _you_ doing here?" The child returned the question in a sharp, high pitched voice, tilting her head to the side.

"I'm just looking for something I've lost." April invented.

"You're not supposed to touch anything there." the girl informed her darkly. For such a small child she sounded rather stern and even menacing.

 _Or I've watched too many horror movies,_ She shook her head. "I know I'm not. As soon as I find what I'm looking for, I'll leave, I won't touch anything else. I promise." _Hey, I'm actually telling the truth, in a way_ , she thought bemused. The little one was looking up and down her bloodied mess of an outfit suspiciously and while April definitely didn't like being analyzed and suspected like this, she caught herself studying the child with almost just as much interest. There was intelligence in her gaze, the kind that gave her a sense of being much older.

"Who are you?" The girl demanded, "You're not with the new uniform guys, are you?"

"The… New uniform guys?" April echoed, quickly scrambling for a more or less believable answer. The child must have meant the security, or the corporate goons. _Can I actually sell it?_ She decided she'd have to. _"_ Yeah, we are, actually. And we need to find something important here, no children are allowed. You should run home."

There was a pause. For just a few seconds their little interrogator looked from April to Adrian and back. Then her expression changed, from the curios intelligent one to a typical, childish, almost clueless and, in April's personal opinion, terribly unconvincing one.

"Yes, ma'am." She chirped after a few seconds long pause, sounding rather casual, drawing her gaze down. Then, without even a second glance at them, marched out of the hall and into the main corridor leading outside.

The moment the girl was out of sight, April slammed the button and ran, as fast as she could, to the elevator, grabbing confused Adrian by sleeve and dragging him along. The elevator door opened indeed, proving her guess about the button correct. She turned to push the button she needed to send themselves up, but the horrible realization struck her.

"There's no button here..." She whispered, "Oh no, I completely forgot! The elevator can only be sent up on that floor by the receptionist!.." And she looked at Adrian.

"One of us has to stay down here?" he offered, surprisingly perceptive.

"Well… that's the only way, yeah…", she rubbed her neck, frustrated and ashamed, "how could I forget…" she moved swiftly to the door that was about to close and held it in place, wincing at the pain the careless treatment sent through her injured hand.

Adrian nodded, while helping her by holding the other door. "Then I'll do it, just tell me how."

"No, you don't understand!" April whispered shaking her head frantically. "It's dangerous for you to stay here. That kid is trouble, she didn't believe a word I said and she's probably ran off to security guards to tell them there's someone suspicious lurking around here!"

"But the guard let us in…" He tried to argue, though his words did nothing to ease April's mind.

"That doesn't matter, if she tells them she thinks we acted suspiciously, he may still check, or send someone else to do it. We're already in danger if whoever checks the shuttle, tracks us here." She bit down her lip, "Listen, when you send me up, get out of here..."

"Here you go again…" Adrian rolled his eyes.

"I mean it!" She whispered fiercely, "Get out of this building and find a place to hide, somewhere not too far, maybe?.. So that I could find you when I get out."

"And what about you?" He asked, turning to lean onto the door's edge with his back, holding it in place with his weight and crossing his arms at his chest, scowling at her. "You'll be going to the "dragon's cave" all alone?"

"I'll be fine," she tried to convince him, "this elevator will take me all the way up to the last floor, then I'll jam it somehow so that no one can use it but me. They're gonna need a long time to get up there by stairs, if they can even find any, if they even have stairs going up to that location…"

"So they will meet you on your way downstairs when you're finished?" he almost pleaded, "April… This is not going to work, let's get out of here if it's so dangerous!"

"I'm not going back until I find every possible little secret this guy has been keeping in his office!" She snapped. "You don't understand and I don't have time to explain right now, but no matter what you say, you can't stop me." She said with finality and ferocity that seemed to take Adrian aback. For a second he just stared at her. Then he took a deep breath.

"Very well, how do I send you up there?"

April wished she could tell him how grateful she was that he didn't argue with her anymore. Later, when they were safe, she would. "The buttons that have arrows on them, on that desk, she pointed. He left the elevator and took up the receptionist's position.

"The arrow pointing up, I presume?"

She nodded. "Be careful out there."

"You too." He pushed the button and the doors slid shut, and the car started the fast and smooth ride upwards.

April swallowed hard. From the very start nothing had gone quite as she'd wanted it and she was still regretting taking Adrian with her. If she was completely honest with herself, this mission was for her own personal gain more than anything else. She needed to investigate for _herself_ , not for anyone else's sake. And so far the former Guardian had proven truly useful and essential only for pushing the button that had sent her to MacAllen's office. Within the minute it took to get to the top of the skyscraper, April managed to brainstorm over a possible exit from the upper level, worry about her partner in crime getting caught and even consider (very tentatively) a slight possibility that the office she was headed to was still occupied by its owner. The very thought made her shudder, but at the same time hopeful, as strange as it was. After all, if one survived, then maybe…

The car stopped with a slight jolt and the doors hissed softly, opening to a shaded empty office. When April stepped out, so very slowly and carefully, her breath got caught at the sight of demolition that met her inside.

The way she remembered this wretched place was with a rich blue carpet stretched to the huge glass wall, and several glass containers along the walls on either side of it, containing artificially bred humanoid creatures, submerged in liquid and deep sleep, bred with powers like hers and probably more.

The luxurious carpet had turned into a mess of stains and glass shards. Blood marks. The Warrior Shifters were gone, their vessels were shattered and the liquid had been spilled on the floor, torn wires and tubes were protruding from where they were plugged into the floor and the ceiling. It was ominous, it was scary. Instinctively she backed into the elevator and took a frightened look around the whole office, as if those things could still be in the room, ready to attack her at any second. It wasn't so, her brain already knew it, but the hair on the back of her neck stood none the less. What did their absence mean? Had they awakened and busted their way out of their containers? She couldn't come up with a single harmless explanation for this puzzle.

She was snapped out of shock by the elevator doors closing. Her arms shot out reflexively, to hold one side open, the other automatically doing the same – she had been standing in their way, not even remembering she was supposed to jam the elevator. With a quick glance around the room she ran out, grabbed the armchair standing at MacAllen's desk and quickly dragged it over to the edge of the elevator. She stood waiting for a few seconds to check whether or not her trick worked. The doors slid back into place, but slid back open after encountering the obstacle. After a few seconds the process was repeated, then again. She took a deep breath. She was free to search the place now, there would be no disturbance at least for some time.

April turned back to the desk. Unlike the last time she'd seen it, there were no papers on it. Nor were any scattered around the office. _That's odd,_ she said to herself, _has anyone cleaned up here since their battle?_ But it was a stupid question, she assured herself. The mess showed no sign of having been cleaned and she doubted anyone less than MacAllen himself was allowed to touch the desk and its contents in any case. This didn't bode well. Feeling colder than ever, she pulled a drawer. There were a few stationary items, but nothing of real interest. She pulled another one, then another. There were five drawers, bereft of anything of value. She pursed her lips, frustrated. _There may be secret compartments here_ , she though and pulled the drawers out completely, felt the edges on the bottom, the insides of the desk itself. It was futile. No secret buttons, no hollow space cleverly hidden from uninvited guests like herself.

"Seriously?!"

When April gave up on vandalizing the desk, she found she had not been very attentive and should have expected something like this all along. When she looked closer at the dimly lit floor, she realized some of the stains were footprints. There was a great mess of them which made them hard to recognize for what they were. Either there had been several people, or someone had done a lot of walking and pacing, most probably both. And whoever it had been, it struck her like a truck, had taken all the documents that had disappeared from MacAllen's desk. After all, all the drawers had locks, but she had no problem opening a single one of them.

Someone had done the job before she had the chance. Whoever it was, they were now in possession of very secret and very dangerous knowledge, as well as the full information about herself, probably more extensive knowledge than _she_ had - after all that was the real reason she was there.

April stood numb for a while, much longer than it was wise of her. Repetitious bumping of the elevator doors on the armchair sounded as if from afar as she tried to pull herself together and decide what this meant for her, or for the world. The first thing she could think of was _I came here for nothing_. She had endangered The twelfth Guardian and herself, literally poured sweat and blood, wasted valuable potions and was expecting to be discovered by armed goons at any second with nowhere to run. All these risks, all this effort only to reach the destination and discover that somebody had simply marched in and then out, taking with them everything she had been hoping to find. She felt frustration welling up inside her and it threatened to pour out of her eyes, but she stubbornly held it in, refusing to give in to despair.

"No way they'd find everything", she said under her breath furiously. "They wouldn't know how much they would need to look for. They didn't know what I know about him, didn't know what he was…" What practical advantage that could possible give her - she didn't know herself, but she held onto the idea, the idea that she had a head start in something, that there was at least one little thing she was superior by. She made several long rounds, searching every nook and cranny (even imaginary ones) around the office, trying to see if she could unlock some hidden hideaway, find undetectable clues, all but forgetting that there could've been a search or a chase being performed in the building. Sadly, even if there was anything hidden away from any intruders, still safely tucked away somewhere, she was just as unsuccessful in spotting it as her unnamed predecessors. Her frustration grew and the search became more frantic. Sweaty and trembling from a nice mixture of exhaustion, chilly temperature and building rage, April finally stopped and leaned onto a wall, looking at the mess of the office. She had done everything she could, leaving bloody imprints all over the place in the process. It was futile and she knew it.

Picking herself up from misery of failure, she glanced at another place she needed to go but wasn't sure she could, nor was she looking forward to it. The second elevator leading up to the secret lab she remembered only too well and what it had led her to. There was nothing else to it. She dragged her feet to it and pushed the button to open the door. During her last visit it only obeyed to MacAllen for some reason. This time it casually swished open and with certain trepidation she entered it, in a few seconds she was in the dreaded laboratory.

At first glance nothing seemed remarkable, the lab looked almost exactly the way she remembered it from her unfortunate visit. But when she thought about it, the oddness of the order of this place came to the surface of her mind. Everything was perfectly intact, all the equipment worked, and was powered. More she thought about it the less sense it made, but her hopes suddenly rose up again. It seemed like this was the one place they had not entered, she must've been the first visitor here since that tragic day. Everything was untouched. She didn't know why the mysterious intruders had neglected exploring an actual secret lab and she didn't particularly care for a moment. What she did care for was what could still be found there. Surely, a secreted place like this had a bigger chance to hold the most precious information than the office she'd just left.

Her footsteps echoed in the vast space. Her eyes skirted over the metal panels and rods, many tubes and wires crisscrossing one another on the floor. There were shards of broken glass of the container from which a monstrous mutant had burst out, chasing her out onto the Hovercraft exit. The strange blue liquid had spilled onto the floor and through many elongated holes in it. April stared at it for a moment, then suddenly crouched on all four and peered down through the same holes. The floor she was standing on was merely a platform, a sort of metal bridge extended from the entrance to the wall opposite. Down there below her feet was an endless well of possibilities.

If she squinted, she thought she could see some blinking lights, faint enough to be mistaken for a trick of an eye, but it was logical for something to be down there. Where she currently stood was too empty of the experimental workings, telltale signs of the dirty work done behind the scenes until the spectacular results were brought up for the one who ordered it. This was a whole new section of the skyscraper and it didn't look like there was access from anywhere but here. There had to be a way to descend below, there had to be a floor, or several floors of labs. She lifted her head and looked around to see if she was missing anything important. There were levers and buttons that could trigger any unimaginable process. She wondered if it was worth the risk or if she should simply pull out all the wires and make a long makeshift rope ladder for herself.

She had little time to consider her options, however, as the elevator suddenly coming to life without her prodding pulled her out of the reveries and a new wave of dread washed over her. April heard it slide smoothly and coming to a stop somewhere down below, before starting again. Horrified that she had already been discovered, she looked around feeling trapped and helpless. There was nowhere to run and very few places to hide, and certainly not a single one that could hide her properly. The only direction she could go was the Hoverpad exit, left open since her "visit". _Oh God, not this again._ She thought panicking, wiping cold sweat covering her forehead with the back of her injured hand. But, having no other way out, she jogged to it anyway, feeling like a trapped animal. It was windy outside. She stood shivering in a corner of the tower's exterior, waiting for whoever it was that would find her in a minute. She heard the elevator door faintly in the howling wind, the footsteps must have been very careful if their sound was drowned, because she heard nothing for a while. She didn't dare hope that the person was going to turn back and leave the place without checking outside. It seemed more likely that they were crawling to her hiding place silently. That was it, she was caught. Then…

"April!" Came a careful call from the inside. "Are you here?"

 _Adrian?_ April could hardly believe it, but she had no choice when the call was repeated, louder and clearer this time. It was really him, he'd done it a second time. She all but ran inside and gaped at the man, who in turn tried to exhale in relief, but he was too out of breath and holding a stitch in his side.

"What are you doing here?" April asked, aghast. "How did you get up here?"

Adrian struggled to speak. "Later," he said, "guards are… coming here… we must leave..."

"How the hell are… " she cut herself short, it was no time for conversations, explanation would have to wait, "Okay, screw it!" And she zoomed past him to the lab elevator, Adrian following her lead once more. "We'll take the elevator to the first floor," she informed him.

"What if they're waiting down there as well?" He asked in a hurry while they rode back to the office.

"How many are there?"

"I don't know, there were several. Someone could have stayed on the ground floor just in case."

"April, wait…" He attempted weakly, still too breathless to provide whatever objections he had in a forceful enough manner. "There's another way…" he finally managed when they were inside the elevator. She barely registered what he'd said when the doors opened and she ran out to the other elevator. Yet another surprise was waiting for them there. The armchair April had so cleverly left in the way of the automated doors was almost completely inside the car now, apparently, the impact with the doors had moved it inch by inch and she hadn't noticed. At first she stood dumbstruck on the spot seeing it, realizing what would happen the very next time the doors attempted to shut themselves. Then she darted towards them just a second too late. with a sharp clang the doors pushed the armchair out of the way and shut themselves tight. Even as she banged on the button to call them back, she could hear the car gliding down, apparently to someone who had called it before she had, perhaps having been calling it this whole time. This was it, she thought once more, they were hopelessly trapped. Except…

"Come on!" Adrian grabbed her arm and practically dragged her to the opposite wall and stood facing it.

"Um… What's going on?" April asked dubiously, looking from Adrian to the wall, trying to identify the target of his attention. Nothing. Adrian didn't answer, nor could she see anything interesting on the plain wall in front of them. It was just a wall, empty of anything noteworthy. No suspicious holes, no handy pictures covering a secret button, or anything of that sort. "Seriously, what are we doing?" She repeated. As a form of answer, he smirked and extended a hand towards…. She didn't know what. But the next moment she leapt back and let out a cry of dismay. Where there had been nothing but a wall, a simple door appeared out of nowhere and Adrian's hand lay on a small doorknob. "How did you do that?" She asked, amazed. Her mind immediately jumped at a conclusion of holographic concealment likes of which she'd never encountered having been used to mask the door. But instinct told her that wasn't quite it. It would've ben very uncharacteristic for him to figure out such technology.

Adrian threw her an excited look, full of hope, "We might still avoid meeting them on the way down!" When he opened it and they both darted out without a second glance at the office, to her surprise, they were greeted by light. They ran through a short narrow corridor with fluorescent lights above all the way along the high ceiling. At the end of it numerous flights of stairs began. They leapt over the steps in their haste.

"Where are we going?!" April managed in a choked whisper.

"Just a few flights down," he answered, panting. "It's almost like a small maze down there, I think we can hide from them if we reach it before they do."

 _And if we don't?_ April thought alarmed. It was risky, and she had already taken a fair share of foolish chances, so far none of them paying off as generously as she'd thought. But she gritted her teeth and said nothing. She had no alternative to suggest after all.

"Almost there!" Adrian intoned under his breath. Even his footsteps became more quiet at that point. He seemed to be trying to tiptoe down on that speed - a useless attempt, April thought, but seeing how they were pretty much speeding towards their pursuers until they could change their course, it was well intended. She took after him. It must've looked like they were dancing down the stairs instead of running, she thought. Not a minute had passed when they heard the voices from downstairs. If they had not been trying so hard to make as little noise as possible, they would've missed the distant sounds completely. The security must've reached them at last, or they would soon. Adrian didn't even seem to think to stop. He bolted down with the same neckbreak speed and made a flailing motion with his arm which April suspected was a "Follow me!" or "Don't Stop!" command. He took two more flights and was all of a sudden out of sight, disappearing in an unremarkable corridor April would've sped past without noticing. She came to a sudden halt, such that she almost went rolling down the next flight with the momentum, but she grabbed the ledge to quickly steer herself to the right direction and followed him through.

He had been correct, it did look like a small labyrinth of sorts. There were short passages ending with shut doors leading who knew where. In a few seconds they came at a crossroads where the passage forked in three directions.

"Left!" Adrian hissed and she followed, hoping he knew where he was going and that they wouldn't find themselves trapped. She didn't ask if this was the way he'd come, she supposed it had to be. He navigated the "maze" quite well, a turn here, a turn there and he never even stopped to contemplate where to go, only slowed down a tad bit at certain points, but then swept by the stark walls like a breeze. Soon they left the threatening voices behind and April found she could breathe freely again. She started looking around with interest. Where did these doors and passages lead? Adrian had chosen a more or less straightforward route, as far as she could judge.

"Are you sure you know where to go?" She asked him carefully in as low a voice as she could with her breathing still uneven from the run.

"You could say that." he responded, his voice sounded strained and he seemed somewhat distracted.

"I just don't want us to end up cornered like that again." She said bitterly.

"Yes…" he said, and April looked at him suspiciously, speeding up a bit to take a look at his face and almost stumbled onto the floor seeing it. She was sure now that he hadn't heard what she'd told him, or hadn't understood. It was clear from his expression that his mind was elsewhere, eyes half closed and unfocused, as if he'd gone blind, brows slightly furrowed and lips parted, his mind clearly not in here and now. Yet somehow he kept navigating this unfamiliar place with ease, choosing which way to turn and where to proceed straight ahead with surety of a man who knew exactly where he was going. She was about to ask if he'd felt sick, when he said, almost whispered, in a very low voice. "It's close now."

"What is?" She asked bewildered.

"We'll see." He answered vaguely, his voice hushed.

"Are you looking for something? Do you know where you're going?" April insisted, but he didn't answer anymore. "Adrian?" Still no response. She became more and more alarmed. _He looks like he's in some kind of trance,_ she thought, _what is he doing? Could he be using magic?_ Then it hit her. Born in Stark he might be, but he was still a Shifter and the Guardian at that, born in a time with no Vanguard hunting down the possible Guardians, making it easy for these chosen few to take their sweet time in Arcadia, learn as much as they could, prepare to fulfill their life's purpose. Adrian's trips to Arcadia must have been a lot more fruitful than hers. Probably more numerous and quite a bit longer too. Her week of frantic skirting around and doing whatever couldn't possibly be a standard for a Shifter's "education". How he managed to use magic in this place was another matter, but if he could, it was a piece of good luck she wouldn't question. She was just about thinking to try opening a Shift when Adrian stopped abruptly. She came to a halt beside him and looked at him, observing the change in his whole demeanor. His eyes slowly opened and refocused, he stared right ahead. It was the end of the passage they'd taken last. A narrow one with just one door in the end of it, which they now stood facing.

"This is it." He whispered. "Come on." And they slowly approached it. April gave it an appraising look. The door certainly differed from all the others they'd seen in the tower so far. It was solid metal, perhaps aged steel, with an even surface, and extra safety measures manifesting in several means of locking it. It sported a handleset, two keyholes, as well as a relatively freshly installed DNA scanner. There was a board on the door too. The bold letters proclaimed the entrance was for those with special permissions. The two of them would not, of course, heed the warning. April stopped with a hand already on the handle. "What's inside?" She asked Adrian hesitantly.

"I don't know." He answered. She narrowed her eyes on him. He did seem to be honest, his eyes alight with curiosity echoing her own. She was starting to think that she needed to reevaluate her judgement of his persona. "Let's go in." He said impatiently, interrupting her line of thought, and April, deciding to put her contemplations away for more convenient time and circumstances, pulled it open.

It was indeed _open!_ She didn't know whether to be excited for not needing to come up with impossible ways to break through that door, or disappointed by the suggestion that this place was most probably emptied by the same mysterious intruders that came here before them and cleared MacAllen's office.

They stepped in carefully, closing the door behind them with a very faint squeak and a click. It was an entrance to yet another corridor, but, just like the door leading to it, it looked sufficiently different from the rest of the building as a whole. It looked older, the walls and the ceiling were not as pristine, they looked aged. Their color was light creamy and had an uneven, textured surface. Even lights seemed to have a different, only slightly yellowish hue to them. The wooden floor creaked sometimes under their feet, though their step was light and otherwise silent thanks to a carpet that lined it. All in all the design of the whole place had noticeably cozier, if old fashioned, homely sort of feel to it in comparison, or there was an attempt at it in any case. April wondered at it as they proceeded, abandoning their previous sprinting speed, to jog to the end of it.

"So," she said after a while, "Are you going to tell me what brought us here?"

"Power…" Adrian answered uncertainly, then added in haste "I wouldn't say magic, but something… Something extraordinary. I felt it on my way up when I got close. We should be near to its source now."

She stared. Extraordinary power? The source was near? "How can you tell?" She asked and Adrian flashed a broad grin. "I've been trained." He announced with some pride, "In Arcadia I tried to learn quite a few things. This was always something of a gift of mine - if there was a magical object in the vicinity, I was the first to feel it, or if anyone from a magical race, or someone with a gift to magic was before me, I could tell without even looking at them. Of course, it was a skill I had to hone, not just inherent talent." He added matter-of-factly.

"Lucky you." April muttered almost grudgingly and looked away. "And what did you do with that door up in the office?" she demanded a few seconds later.

"The same thing", he said, his grin widening even more, "It was a door that revealed itself once you found it. Only, that actually was magic in its traditional sense, quite a simple working too, but more than enough an obstacle to stall anyone unversed in, or unaware of magic." He took a very careful glance in her direction, "You can learn how to do things like this too. I could help…"

She just shrugged. "So, do you have a guess what this power is that you're 'feeling'?"

"I'm not sure…" He answered thoughtfully, "It's _very_ unusual, and it's getting stronger, which means we're on the right path."

"Rushing into the unknown again." She noted.

"I suppose." He agreed.

The corridor forked and Adrian chose the left route without much hesitation. April followed. There were doors here, also heavy and iron cast, but each one with only a single lock - all open. She slowed down and stopped. "Hey," she called quietly, "I think we should take a look!" As Adrian stopped and retraced his steps reluctantly, she opened the very first door and entered. It was not what she'd expected. She thought she'd see shelves aligned with data files, or a lab full of remnants of the Vanguard's sinister experiments. It was just a room, not much unlike her own room at the Border House. Small, simple, livable. It wasn't extremely tidy, a layer of dust had covered the few pieces of furniture and the floor, but it couldn't have been abandoned a long time ago. There were no cobwebs, no sign of mildew, everything was in good repair, only a chair was toppled over, but otherwise nothing seemed amiss. Her curiosity piqued, she approached a small cabinet and opened it. Not much, just some folded clothing. She pulled it out and stretched it before her. It was a plain white outfit. Not really a uniform but clearly lacking individuality and looking very _sterile_. Like something one should be given in a hospital.

"Did someone live here?" Adrian asked, opening a small door, there was a tiny bathroom in it.

"Looks like it." She whispered, though she didn't know why.

They poked around for just a bit, until they realized there was nothing of importance to be found there and exited the place quietly. There were more identical looking doors along the way and April couldn't help opening a few of them to see if they were just as similar on the inside. They were, and while Adrian fidgeted and urged her to hurry up for there could still have been pursuit, she took some time to explore them as well, to see if she could come up with a good guess as to what purpose these rooms served and whom they were supposed to accommodate, if that word could be used. The forbidding massive doors on these tiny apartments seemed to scream of _imprisonment_.

When she finally quelled her damned curiosity enough to drag herself from yet another chamber, Adrian led the way with fresh vigor, perhaps to prevent her wasting time sightseeing on the way again. April still kept looking around to see if there was a room indicated as archives, management or anything of the sort. Anything that could store interesting documents, anything that could give her useful information. It was hard to do at such fast pace and Adrian not even considering to go off course for a second more. On the other hand, she had to admit that this mysterious power source was probably the most interesting thing they could've searched for.

"Almost there!" Adrian proclaimed with great excitement after a minute or two and started running full speed, April hurrying to catch up with him again. They went into an empty and wide corridor - a lot wider and taller than any others that brought them here, bearing proportions of an ancient royal castle rather than an average facility in a modern building. At the end of it stood huge, imposing doors - up to three meters tall perhaps, and just as wide. It had no locks or bolts, no handles to pull and no scanners for DNA, iris, fingerprint, or even something as hopelessly outdated as plastic cards.

But there was something that made April's heart speed up quite a bit and she didn't quite know the reason. She felt _something_ \- something, she figured, Adrian must have been feeling all along. Much later, in a safer environment, when she'd had time and luxury to sit down and retell the events of that day, she would struggle immensely trying to describe it and ultimately fail. _Something_ was pulsing. It went over her senses like waves of breeze, cool and soothing. She felt her body and mind relax to such completion she didn't think was possible. She breathed in deeply, like one leaving a stuffy, airless, smelly room and emerging into virgin nature all of a sudden, greenery in abundance, clear transparent mountain air pouring itself into one's lungs without any effort, and the seemingly distant and dormant primordial part of subconsciousness shaking awake, roused by leaves whispering in the wind, aching to give its voice to bird calls and a river roaring somewhere far away, almost like music, like a song, ancient, timeless... Snatching her mind away even further...

April didn't know for how long she had stood there, entranced. She was brought out of her reveries by a sudden movement by her side. Adrian, whom she had all but forgotten, stepped carefully forward and extended his hand to the door. Hesitating, as if afraid he might burn it, he rested his palm very slowly on a faint circle in the middle of it, on their eye level, hardly noticeable until it was pointed out. "It's coming from here", he said in a hoarse whisper and shivered slightly.

"I know," April answered, just as quietly, as if they were both afraid they might break some charm they seemed to be placed under. She was still partly lost in this strangest of perceptions, threatening to pull her back into the hypnotic experience any time. "I can feel it too. What is this?"

"I have no idea…" he shook his head. "Not magic, I'm sure of it now… But I don't…" he jerked away and whirled around as a sudden clank echoed from somewhere afar.

"They're on our tail." April made a rather obvious statement. Of course, she thought, anyone's attention would've been drawn to _that_ door. They _would_ check these mysterious facilities. "Should we hide?" They looked at each other and she could tell they were thinking the same thing. The allure of the grand door emanating inexplicable, fascinating power was too strong to just walk away from it without having tried to enter it first. April walked closer to the door, stopping at Adrian's side and took a good look at it. "If only we could find a way to open it…" She whispered wistfully.

"I don't think this opens any ordinary way," he said, eyeing the door, "But I'm not sure magic would do it either, except, perhaps for that explosive potion you had."

"All spent," she cut shortly, shaking her head, then pursed her lips and brushed her fingers over the surface. "This is too extraordinary to be accessible for regular personnel around here. I think… Only MacAllen himself and maybe his trusted few would've known the way to open it." She tried to clear her mind of the influence from the power source and think as hard as she could. Whatever the secret to opening the door was, it was too well hidden. If there were sensors - though she could see none - they wouldn't register her and Adrian as acceptable people anyway. If there was a code, she didn't know it and couldn't see where to enter it. It was so obvious that they couldn't gain entrance there, she felt stupid for even contemplating it when the most reasonable course of action was running away and hiding from the oncoming cops. But for some reason she couldn't. Whatever lay there, she felt as if she was connected to it in some obscure way and she found herself unable to walk away from it.

"I wish we had time…" She whispered, gliding her fingertips along the thin lined circle and brushing the center of it lightly. The next moment she yelped in surprise and so did her companion as the door suddenly came alive. The circular line lit up and slowly, and rather loudly, the door slid to the side out of their path. They stared with their mouths hanging open, dumbstruck and disbelieving what had just happened. The security could hear it, April was sure of that, but the success was too unexpected and overwhelming to allow the fear taint it.

"How did you do that?" Adrian gasped.

"I'm not sure I did anything." She responded and stepped tentatively forward. There was darkness ahead, but not a total one. The light spilling in that facility from the passage revealed a rectangular platform on which they stopped and took a look around at the vast hollow space. There were circular stairs going down to the bottom of it, disappearing out of sight. Without even exchanging a questioning look, they started descending into the dark chasm. Immediately there was a loud bang from the door shutting itself. _Well, at least it should stop the pursuit behind us, provided that they can't open it._ April thought to herself, and Adrian asked her next thought out loud: "How are we supposed to get out of here?"

She only sighed, so tired of facing one inescapable trap after another, but somehow escaping them all in the last second. "We'll see. There may be another exit.. I hope."

He made a noncommittal sound and they both concentrated on now nearly invisible stairs that went a very long way along the circular walls. They kept gliding one hand over the wall, to make sure they kept close to it and not risk falling in the abyss on the other side. April kept glancing uneasily to the bottom. There were lights down there and strange contraptions and devices slowly became visible after some time was spent walking down the stairs. Their descent took a while, careful as they were not to slip or stumble. The whole time it took April had been wondering whether or not their pursuers had heard the door slamming shut, whether or not they'd be able to follow them into this cave like facility and how she and Adrian were going to get out if they did, or if they didn't and decided to camp at the door until the two of them went out on their own accord. She was also wondering about the mysterious power that brought them there. Its influence had weakened significantly already and was gradually declining in strength. Despite what she'd previously assumed, it didn't seem like its source was inside this place, but rather in, or on the door itself. _Was it a spell to ward off intruders?_ She wondered for a moment. It could have been, except it seemed to have worked backwards, at least where April and Adrian were concerned. What sort of a protection spell would first call them here and let them in the moment they touched it? "Umm, Adrian?" She started uncertainly, "do you think this could be a trap?"

"A trap?" he replied, not all that surprised to hear it.

"It did lure us pretty effectively.."

"Who would set it up for us though?" He asked thoughtfully.

"It may not have been for us. Just for intruders in general."

"It could…" He stopped himself, probably giving it some good thinking. "It felt too forbidding to be a luring spell." He declared in the end. His choice of words came as a surprise.

"Forbidding?" April blinked at him.

"Yes, like something tabooed, something beyond reach and I'd better not try to touch it or else. It gave me that kind of feeling."

"It felt nothing like that to me," she said thoroughly surprised, "It was the opposite, actually. It just drew me to it."

"Interesting," he sounded genuine, "spells can be designed to call for something inside the person they're affecting. When that's the case, the reaction will vary from one man to the other depending on their own individual traits. Those spells are a lot more difficult to set up, as far as I know. They require great power and knowledge and skill, so they are very rare. But… Like I said, I'm thoroughly unsure that thing is magic."

"What do you think it is then?" Asked April.

"Well, the lord of this place was a Draic Kin, isn't that correct?"

"Yes..?"

"He could have done something, using his own powers."

"Which… _isn't_ magic?" She asked, exasperated. Understanding just how little she knew about all this, and how much she probably should've known - had some circumstances beyond her reach and knowledge not prevented it – was excruciating.

Adrian paused, pondering the question. "I suppose anyone in Stark would still call it magic and see no difference. Everyone unversed in the Lore of the Worlds, that is." He clarified. "But the power of the Draic Kin comes from their own world. Magic is the trait of Arcadia and it used to be the trait of the original world before the divide. It's a different force of nature. Or a force of a different nature, one could say."

"Okay, I get that there is a difference, I think. But How can you tell that difference?" April wondered.

"It's more of a guess than anything else. Different sorts of magic and different people's magic feel different too, but that thing that stood in the doorway is too alien. If I'm wrong and it is actually magic, it's the most extraordinary thing I've encountered in my life. The thing that awaits us at the bottom of this pit, on the other hand…" He paused, seemingly for a dramatic effect.

"Yes…?" April prompted, catching on.

"It's definitely magic. Also unusual, and very powerful."

"Really?" She felt excited. Could it possibly be that they hadn't gone through all that trouble for nothing? She looked over to the bottom once more, outlines of the tech assembled below were easy to make out now. Whatever the purpose of this machinery was, it had to be important, after all, it wouldn't be placed in an oversized Batcave otherwise.

They walked the rest of the way in silence, reaching the bottom tired, but full of anticipation. It was a sight to behold. Rows of strange consoles stretched from one side of humongous circular hall to the other. Some of them were identical, but some, April was sure, had to come from different Eras entirely. She easily spotted a few that reminded her of illustrations from books and articles about old technologies. At home she'd had a book called "Rise of Computing Machines" she used to goggle at as a kid, that showed pictures of old, bulky boxes with rounded screens, or walls filled with buttons and small triggers. She could see machines similar to those on the edge of the room. Others, on the other hand, looked as sleek and modern as anything she'd expected from a high tech secret lab. The most interesting ones, however, were the ones that glowed with magic. These instantly drew both their attentions. Located further in the opposite half of the room were rather unusual machines indeed. April assumed they were machinery because they roughly followed the design of nearby consoles, but these differed significantly with the absence of any usual interface, including a normal screen. In its place was what at first looked to them like a hollow space, but something shimmered in a ghostly fashion over it - a thin layer of some light substance. Upon closer inspection April thought it had to be some sort of a magical replacement for a normal screen. Its texture reminded her of potions the way it swirled and twirled around chaotically, albeit potions were more solid looking than this. There were a few similar consoles nearby, some of them glowing faintly in different colors. A large screen on a very wide and bulky one with a metal frame and large glassy screen kept outputting strings of numbers nonstop. Or, rather, April thought at first that they were numbers. As she got closer, she realized she didn't recognize most symbols and the ones that actually looked somewhat like numbers and letters she was no longer sure about.

"I wonder if some of these are the machines that create barriers against Shifting?" Adrian said.

"I thought the same thing." April agreed. "MacAllen called the barriers magical. It looks like there's a lot of magic here."

"Do you think you could figure out which one of these does that? If you did, we could disable it somehow and Shift right out of here."

The idea certainly appealed to her, but if she was realistic, the chances that she could make the heads and tails of that system were slim to none, Adrian was giving her too much credit. "That's unlikely", she admitted, "but we should try anyway..." They stepped carefully, trying not to stumble over many wires and tubes that crisscrossed the floor, peering at the machines and trying to find the hints as to what purpose each one of them served. It was hard enough even with their displays bright and active, but some didn't even have them.

"It's strange," she heard Adrian's voice faintly, he was a good deal away from her by then.

"What?" She called.

"Some of these are connected in some manner, their magic is, anyway. They work as one." April looked over at the consoles Adrian stood in front of. He had chosen a group of magically glowing ones (which was to be expected, she supposed) as the target of his attention. "It's as if they were different parts of the same living being, if that makes sense." He added thoughtfully.

"Yeah, it could be a farm," April said, and seeing him turn his head to her in confusion, clarified: "it's when different machines are connected in a sort of a net to handle tasks that would be too difficult or impossible for only one to handle on its own. It's done when a task requires more power than any one of them can provide, do you understand?" Adrian seemed to, he nodded slowly, clearly thinking this over. Then she looked around at the vast cavern, an idea striking her, "Maybe all of this is one farm!" she exclaimed. It seemed possible. If only they knew what task it was handling though… "It could've been powering the magical barriers then!" Adrian shouted. Again, a very real possibility and she nodded vigorously with genuine enthusiasm.

"We may not even need to wrack our brains for a proper shutdown then!" April theorized. "If we unplug enough of them to disrupt the process or weaken the power if that's the way it works..." as she paused for just a second to draw breath, she heard something that halted her and made her crane her neck up to the way they'd entered. Adrian did the same.

Noise was coming from above, not very loud, but still clearly audible. It continued for several seconds, stopped, picked up again… Unless she was much mistaken, someone, somehow had opened the door and entered the place. She gulped and looked at Adrian wide eyed. They were both thinking the same thing: could they possibly be discernible from that height? They were at a disadvantage standing in a pool of shimmering light while the security guards remained in the darkness, at least for a time. She looked around, to find somewhere to hide. She gestured to a little cluster of larger consoles and she and Adrian took refuge among them, crouching behind the central large console, where a shadow fell. It was a feeble hideout at best and one that could only buy them a minute at most, until they were discovered. "April," Adrian whispered, barely heard over the buzzing and humming from the machines surrounding them. "I have an idea! Try to open a Shift…"

April looked at him in surprise, "Haven't we already established that we can't Shift in and out of this place?" She whispered back.

"Just trust me, please!" He pleaded. She didn't understand what he was hoping to accomplish, but she tried anyway. Not believing in the success, she didn't bother to select a safe place and simply concentrated on Journeyman Inn again. Like she'd expected, it didn't work. The same cold reluctance met her from the Dreaming as when she had tried to Shift to Grendel Avenue from the Inn. She looked at Adrian exasperated, but he, to her great surprise, looked overly excited.

"I knew it..." he whispered fiercely and beamed at her. "We were right, you were blocked from exactly here. I felt how the power rose in resistance! Should we try and disable these machines while the guards are still up there?"

Her eyes widened. She looked up at the darkness above, calls from the security guards to each other – orders, warnings - were clearly heard now, they drew nearer every second. Then she looked down and stared all around, at the complex net of the machines she'd never seen before. There was only one way to disable it in due time and that was to damage it. There would be no proper, safe shutdowns for this. She nodded at Adrian decisively and reached out to the nearest console that had only a few buttons on it. She started pressing them frantically and chaotically, seeing if she could mess it up. The thing beeped in what sounded to her like an annoyed sort of manner, a few more sounds came from a console right next to it and a few tiny light bulbs flickered where they'd been dead before. But then nothing. Adrian caught on and tried to do the same on other consoles as April too proceeded from one to the other. There was disturbance soon enough, some warning messages popping out on screens, more disturbed beeps and one Adrian was working on went completely dead. A Shift still didn't appear, but they _could_ get somewhere with this. " _Keep it up_ " she mouthed at him and they set laboriously to work. Then, suddenly, there was a very loud and forceful shout.

"You there! Don't move!" She stopped dead. They'd been noticed already. She stole a glance at Adrian, who too stood unmoving where he'd been, he only glanced back at her carefully. "Hands up where I can see them!" the same voice ordered. They obeyed. A few more orders were given to two more guards that were with him, for one to keep an eye out and search the place for more intruders and to keep these two at a gunpoint. "Who are you and how did you get in here?" He shouted.

"We work here!" April answered, the thought striking her so unexpectedly, even she was surprised. The man didn't buy it for a second.

"This whole building was evacuated, nobody's supposed to be here! Identify yourselves!"

"That's not true!" April retorted, while thinking what she'd do when they had finally descended the stairs and taken them both in for questioning. It was clear that if that happened, they'd suffer grave consequences. "We are not the only civilians here! There was even a little girl... "

"That little girl", the man interrupted sternly, "informed us that there were two thieves in this building…" _Brat._ "…and by the description she gave us," he pressed on, his voice full of arrogance and disdain, "they sounded like they could be the same two lowlife criminals from the lowest level of the city that blew up the Interlevel Elevator, infiltrated the upper level, stole a shuttle and left it to explode in the middle of a park in Grendel Avenue!" He finished listing their sins of the day. April and Adrian looked at each other desperately. These guys knew everything they'd done and when they were captured and interrogated, a lot more information would be in their hands. She couldn't let that happen, she wouldn't. Slowly, very slowly she made a tiny, barely detectable movement with her head – a movement only someone standing close had a chance to take note of – pointing out the largest consoles in the center, close to where they were standing, just a couple of steps away. "Now stay where you are and don't try anything funny, or you'll be shot on the spot!" The stranger told them, his voice nearer and nearer. She was sure those weren't just words and he would do just as he threatened to, yet she saw the alternative of being captured, tortured and perhaps being gotten rid of, or imprisoned for a lifetime a far worse alternative and well worth the risk she was about to take. Adrian returned his answer with a slight nod. They both suddenly dove as one towards the chosen shelter and just as they did, guns fired. Adrian let out a muffled shout, the next second he huddled by her side where they both crouched, his right palm pressed to his left arm. April looked at it fearfully, but there was no time to even ask how badly he had been injured. In a split second she managed to summon enough concentration to make sure Shifting still didn't work and decided to use drastic means. She had no time left to try and be discreet, she had to be destructive. The console they were cowering behind had a lot of wires and plugs that connected it to all the ones that surrounded it in a circle. She pulled the plugs out. Then, foolishly, outright grabbed wires with her bare hands in her impatience and tore them out violently. One of them must have been damaged. The next thing she was aware of was her body being seized, her arms felt as if something had grabbed them at the wrists and pulled violently in opposite directions, hopelessly trapped in some hellish version of a straitjacket, sent into convulsions. She must've had some lucky stars still left heavens, because the power of shock threw her backwards, stumbling over more wires and one of her feet accidentally unplugging even more wires, the ones in her fist hanging loose and free of the machinery and suddenly her body was hers again. The whole system started misbehaving. Red lights flashed, there was buzzing and screeching. More blasts came their way, accompanied by shouts. Sparks flew all around them and in a few seconds they could see the guards were now running down the stairs to apprehend them.

"We must Shift now, April! Where to?!" Adrian shouted to her.

"To the Isle of Alais!" April blurted out without thinking, shaking and disoriented, "It's the safest place now!.." But Adrian was shaking his head vigorously even before she had finished the sentence. "I don't know that place! Let's..." but their negotiation time was up. A blast hit overhead, way too close, forcing them to shuffle over to the side and try to make themselves smaller. Their assailants were closing in and they had found a better angle to shoot, apparently. In seconds they would have their heads blown off with guns, or they'd fall prey to the very same objects that were shielding them for a moment. A row of machinery was caught in a series of fiery explosions - whether from being shot or the damage she and Adrian had purposely done, she didn't know. Not close enough to roast them alive or tear them apart, but definitely big enough to knock them to sideways and almost deafen them. Sparks started raining out of several consoles. Soon the whole place, themselves included, would be caught in fire, and the existence of a working fire alarm system was still under a question mark. There was no time to discuss anything or argue. With one final terrified look around at the fiery cavern April opened a Shift - to the right place, she hoped vaguely. It opened right below her feet and both of them falling into it, she grabbed Adrian's hand, who had whelped in surprise and yelled "Wait, no!" as he followed her, falling together in the pool of light.


End file.
